Who Watches the Watchman
by Laura Picken
Summary: When a woman is framed for a murder that she didn't commit, Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson get pulled into the world of the Guardians. A Daredevil/Sentinel/Castle crossover, with cameo appearances from the Forever crew. AU Multiverse crossover, if you haven't alread guessed. ;-) Dedicated to my buddy FDWojo! EDITING IN PROGRESS
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** After *finally* getting around to watching Marvel's _Daredevil_ on Netflix, it inspired this glorious little piece of crazy. In 'homage' to Netflix's style of dropping an entire season at once, this story has been posted in its entirety. Have fun binge-reading!

"Watchmen" is dedicated to the awesome FDWojo, who is in the process of creating cover images not just for this story, but for "Age of Miracles" and my shiny new profile pic. We originally started talking after he expressed his disappointment that there wasn't nearly enough Beckett in "Age of Miracles". He was right - in a story that big it's really hard to give anyone more than a moment or two in the sun. Combine that comment with a giant binge-watch of _Daredevil..._

 **Universe context:** This story is, technically, post-"Age of Miracles", although (obviously) you don't need to know what happens in that story to enjoy this one. By now, most of you are probably well aware that the "Guardians" universe is a massively multi-verse AU crossover that includes _Castle, Forever, Sentinel,_ and most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including _Avengers, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._ and now _Daredevil._ So this story is primarily a _Daredevil/Castle/Sentinel_ crossover, although our other peeps might put in a couple of cameos here and there. It's largely from the _Daredevil_ POV, alhough once Beckett shows up she will be the primary Guardian in the story, I promise. :-)

 **DISCLAIMER:** Since Marvel hasn't sued me off the Internet by now, I'm hoping they haven't noticed, or at least are enjoying what they've read. ;-) I don't own anything else on television either. The Guardian concept and any original characters are mine, though. Please don't use them without my permission. I promise, though, I'll probably give it if you ask nicely!

And now, let the adventure begin...

#

ADA Bai Lu shut down his computer with a weary sigh. Most days, he loved his job. The idea of getting justice for the helpless and putting away the bad guys...it was everything he had ever wanted since he first stood up to the bully that had been tormenting his best friend in the third grade. But the late nights...the long hours...occasionally, the daily grind kept his love for the job at arm's length. Sometimes, he just wanted to go home, crack open a beer, and thank his lucky stars that he had made it through another day.

Unfortunately for Bai Lu, his day was not quite over.

A man stood in the doorway to Bai's office, his muscular bulk blocking most of the light streaming in from the well-lit hallway. "Our Lady has found favor with you," the man spoke in a deep, growling Mandarin. "She has come to request your assistance."

Bai swallowed hard, terrified tremors shooting through his body at the sound of the name he had hoped to never, ever hear again. When he finally found his voice to speak, it was with the greatest of difficulty. "W-w-w-w-wha...what does she wa...want me to do?"

A child emerged from the giant man's shadow and approached Bai's desk. Bai scrambled back from the child almost instinctively, feeling panic to the very core of his being. The child dropped a manila envelope on the desk and returned to the shelter of the larger man's shadow. "What...what the hell is THAT?!" Bai exclaimed, almost screaming.

"A murder charge filing," the man replied. "Everything you need is in the envelope. All you will need to do is sign the forms."

Bai crept back to his desk and reached a trembling hand out to take the envelope. When he flipped through the tops of the papers, Bai discovered that all the paperwork was, indeed, in order. "I-i-i-if thhhhh..this is a m-m-m-m-murder case," Bai stammered, "Then w-w-w-w-where's the body?"

"That is not your concern," the man declared.

"B-b-b-but," Bai protested, feeling a sudden, inexplicable surge of desperate boldness, "without a body it's going to be next to impossible to convince a judge to file charges..."

"Go to Judge Li," the man replied calmly. "He will sign."

His hopes dashed, Bai dropped the envelope back down on his desk. The lawyer, though, couldn't resist asking one last question. "The boy. Who is he?"

"Someone that you never want to see again," said the man, his voice tinged with sadness. "I can promise you that."

Bai slumped down in his chair, his eyes never leaving the file as the man closed the office door behind him.

#

The man turned to the boy as they waited for the building's slow elevator, his voice trembling for the first time that evening. "I-I-I have done as my lady asked," the man begged the boy, "please..."

The boy's head tilted up at an unnatural angle. Tendrils of smoke erupted from the boy's nose and mouth, wrapping around the man's arms, legs, torso and head. The man started to convulse as the smoke closed in around him, eventually pouring into his nose and mouth...

The boy entered the elevator alone.

#

The 15th Precinct was its usual cacophony of angry protests, active conversations, clacking keyboards and shrill phones that seemed to want to jump off the hook at the slightest provocation. Sgt. Brett Mahoney's phone was one of those to ring, and he picked it up on the second ring. "Good morning. 15th Precinct."

"Brett? It's LT at the 12th."

Mahoney smiled for the first time that evening. "Hey, LT. How are things downtown?"

The moment of silence on the other end of the line wiped the smile off of Brett's face. "There's somethin' goin' on down here, man," LT replied. "I'm hopin' you might be able to help me with it."

Mahoney swallowed nervously, not wanting to get involved in another precinct's 'somethin' after everything that had occurred at his _own_ precinct. _I swear to God,_ he thought, _if you weren't family..._ "How can I help?" he asked with a sigh, resigned to his fate.

"We got this blind woman down here they're holdin' on suspicion she killed her husband. She's asked for a lawyer, but the public defender's office ain't pickin' up."

Mahoney looked at his watch. _6 am._ "That's not a big surprise, LT. Don't they open at 9?"

"Thing is," LT countered, "they don't have a body yet. Just four witness statments sayin' she confessed."

" _Four_?" Mahoney exclaimed, eyes widening.

LT nodded, even though his friend couldn't see it. "Something stinks about this'un, Brett, and we *all* feelin' it o'er here. But DA's insistin' they hold her. Then I 'membered about that blind lawyer friend o'yours you was tellin' me about..."

Mahoney sighed, instantly recognizing who LT was talking about. "They're not friends...exactly. But I know who you're talking about and you're right. He can help her. Let me get you their number."

#

"Foggy...Foggy...Foggy..."

Matt Murdock slammed the snooze button on his talking alarm clock before he realized that it was the talking ring of his cell phone that was nagging him to a waking state and not his alarm. His arm flopped around until he found the offending object and put it to his ear. "Please tell me there's a very good reason you're calling me after I've only gotten two hours of sleep."

"And whose fault is _that_?" Foggy teased back. "I mean come on, it's not like you have a hot girl there, despite _all_ of my wishful thinking..."

A smile crept across Matt's face. "Nice to not wake up to you giving me grief about the mask, for once."

On the other end of the line, Foggy's smile matched his friend's. "Look, you know I'm not a fan of the whole 'Daredevil' thing. And I'm _never_ going to stop worrying about you out there. But if that's really the way you want to spend your evenings, that's your call."

Matt held the phone in front of his 'unseeing' eyes, gawking at the phone in disbelief before returning it back to his ear. "Did you and Karen go out 'drinking the eel' again last night?!"

Foggy chuckled. "Nope. Only had one beer. But when I was sitting at that bar I got to thinking. And as much as I hate to admit it, we would never have gotten Fisk without your 'particular set of skills'. So I've finally given in and decided I'll support you as much as I can possibly stomach it."

The smile on Matt's face grew. "Thanks, Foggy."

"Don't thank me yet," Foggy countered. "I need you to get dressed and get your super-powered ass down to the 12th precinct. Right now."

Matt frowned. "The 12th? That's a little out of the Kitchen, Foggy."

"It's a hot tip from Brett on a potential client," Foggy countered. "Brett recommended us to a friend of his over there. It's a murder case. Brett thinks this could end up big. Real high-profile stuff. The kind of stuff that gets our name in the paper and clients in the door. Clients with actual _money."_

"So how could _we_ possibly be the right lawyers for the job?" Matt argued skeptically.

"The suspect is a _blind woman,"_ Foggy replied emphatically. "She's accused of murdering her husband. Just think about the headlines we could get! 'The blind leading the blind...'"

Matt rolled his eyes. "That's a terrible expression, Foggy. Not to mention wrong. And exploitive."

"Whatever. Just get to the 12th in 30 minutes or less, or I'll find some freaky supervillain to come after you and make you wish I wasn't being nearly so 'supportive'..."

#

Captain Victoria Gates sipped at her coffee, watching the blind woman waiting patiently on the other side of the glass. _I've seen cases pushed through on some damn sketchy evidence before,_ she thought, _but this one...something about this whole case is more rotten than last month's fish._ She turned away from the box, looking out at the sparsely populated bullpen. _Let's see...who can I trust this one to..._

The gentle tapping of a bouncing cane caught Gates' attention. _Those must be Ms. Wong's lawyers,_ thought Gates. _LT said he was going to call somebody..._ Something about the young blind man caught her attention. _Now why does he look so familiar to me..._

Out of the corner of her eye, Gates spotted an old copy of the _New York Bulletin._ The captain picked up the paper, comparing the blurry image against the build of the man who was slowly making his way across the room. _A blind guy? No way..._ The words _Richard Castle, wizard_ floated through Gates' mind, forcing her, as always, to suspend her disbelief until all the evidence was in. She might not have enough evidence to convict the man of being the vigilante known as 'Daredevil'. _But it wouldn't hurt to follow the lead..._

The 12th's technical specialist was at Karpowski's desk, dropping off a folder of forensic evidence reports. "Miss Ellis," Gates called across the bullpen, "may I see you for a moment, please?"

Tory crossed the bullpen, her voice lowering as she entered the box's observation room. "Yes, captain?" she asked quietly. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Gates tilted her head in the direction of the bullpen. "Can you run facial recognition against only the lower half of someone's face?"

Tory frowned as she considered the three people that her boss was pointing to. "The suspect, sir? Isn't she the victim's wife?"

"Not the suspect," Gates corrected Tory. "Her lawyer. The blind one."

Tory's eyes widened. "You want me to run facial recognition on _him?_ Why?"

Gates handed Tory the newspaper. Tory compared the face of the admittedly attractive blind man with the image on the newspaper's front page. "He does have one of those kind of faces, Captain..."

Gates sighed, no longer wanting to argue what should have been a direct order in the first place. "Use the footage from when he got off the elevator. And let me know as soon as you have something."

"Yes, sir," Tory replied, recognizing the order as soon as she heard it. "Although with fewer data points to work from, it may take considerably longer than usual."

Gates thought about the question that was certain to nag at the back of her mind until it was answered. _This is probably just a wild goose chase from spending too much time around superheroes,_ Gates thought, _but if he really is who I think he is..._ "I'm willing to wait, Miss Ellis. Thank you."


	2. Chapter 2

Blair Sandburg rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He stretched his arms up over his head and pulled against the headboard behind him without ever opening his eyes. Blair felt every muscle lengthen and joint pop as his weary body slowly started to greet the day. _Man, that felt good,_ he thought. _Maybe I need to start doing more yoga..._ Blair immediately winced at the idea and the corresponding image it brought to his mind. _Great,_ his thoughts continued with a groan, _now I'm starting to sound like my mother._ Blair opened his eyes, squinting and blinking as his eyes adjusted to the bright light streaming in through the still-curtainless windows. He checked his bedside clock, surprised by the numbers he saw. _Ten hours of sleep,_ Blair recognized, doing the math. _So then why do I feel like crap?_

The acrid smell of burnt coffee wafted into the room. Blair panicked, instinctively fearing the worst. He forced his protesting muscles to a standing position as quickly as he could. Clad only in his boxers, he padded into the kitchen to find that his roommate, Sentinel and best friend, Jim Ellison, was similarly dressed, slowly sipping that awful-smelling coffee as he sat at the island, lost in his thoughts. Blair sighed with relief...but that relief was short-lived when he noticed that Jim pretty much looked like he felt.

"Morning, chief," Ellison greeted his roommate, never looking in Blair's direction as he spoke.

"Morning ended about two hours ago, Jim," Blair complained in response. He poured himself a cup of the bitter, think, coffee-like sludge that his roommate was drinking and choked down one swallow before his body refused to proceed any further.

Ellison smiled for the first time since both men had woken up. "You've never been a fan of long stakeouts."

Blair ignored the comment and picked up the coffee pot, using what little energy he could spare to conjure up a fresh batch of the much-needed liquid. Once he was able to find an unused coffee mug and pour himself a fresh cup, Blair allowed himself one small sigh of relief. "Jim, next time, just kill me at the end of the night. At least I'll wake up feeling better than this."

"Sure, chief," Ellison agreed, his mind clearly elsewhere.

His concerns renewed, Blair forced his partner to put down his coffee, converting the sludge in Ellison's mug to another fresh cup as the mug came to rest on the counter. "Okay, Jim, you _hate_ that joke. You go ballistic on me every time I tell it. What's going on?"

Blair's concern seemed to shake Ellison out of his stupor. "Oh...sorry, chief. I just...I didn't sleep well last night, I guess."

"Want to tell me about it?"

Jim sighed and took a sip of the fresh coffee, taking the moment to gather his thoughts. "It's nothing. I had a weird dream is all."

A shot of nervous adrenaline inexplicably traveled down Blair's spine. "What was your dream about?"

"It was _nothing_ , chief," Jim insisted.

Blair was decidedly skeptical of the way that his Sentinel was downplaying the dream. "No dead tigers?" Jim shook his head. "No apocalypse?"

Jim shook his head again. "All I was doing was watching a blind woman give a deposition in a murder case at the 12th. It's just..."

Blair swallowed hard as a wave of familiar recognition washed over him. "Just what, Jim?"

"In the dream, my sight wasn't working. I don't know how, or why, but everything looked like it was..."

"The surface of the sun?" asked Blair.

Jim tilted his head as Blair completed his thought for him. "Yeah..."

Blair pinched the bridge of his nose, wincing as he massaged the space between his eyes. "I think I might have had the same dream last night."

"Any idea what it means?" asked Jim.

Blair could only shrug. "Not a clue." He sipped at his coffee until an idea came to him. "Maybe it's trying to warn us that your sight might be in jeopardy and you should learn to compensate now..."

Jim groaned at the images Blair's comments came to mind. "I'm never going to get away from your tests, am I?"

Blair, for the first time that morning, smiled...before hiding the smile around the rim of his coffee mug. "Nope."

#

"Ms. Wong?"

Jennifer Wong looked up at the sound of the gentle voice that pierced the silence of the soundproofed room. "Yes?"

"My name is Matt Murdock, Ms. Wong," Matt continued, introducing himself. "This is my partner, Foggy Nelson. We're your attorneys."

Jennifer sighed with relief even as her heartbeat spiked. She leaned forward, placing her hands on the table. "Please," she begged, her voice dripping with desperation, "my husband...he's gone..."

"On that point," Foggy chimed in, playing 'devil's advocate'. "It seems you and the police are in agreement. But the police seem to believe that you've killed him."

Jennifer's face fell as she pulled her hands back and slumped with defeat. "You don't...believe me..."

Matt opened up his senses...and recognized the utterly desperate sincerity radiating from ever fiber of Jennifer's being. "No, I believe you, Ms. Wong," He countered simply.

Foggy turned to his partner, trying to read his best friend's body language. _I wish I was half as good at reading him as he is at reading...well, everything, I guess,_ he thought. He sighed and followed his partner's lead, turning his attention back to their client. "Why don't you tell us about the past twenty-four hours?"

Jennifer turned her attention back to Foggy as if she, herself, were in a fog. "The past...twenty-four hours..."

Matt tilted his head to the side, his attention seemingly caught on something. "You don't remember, do you?"

Jennifer leaned back in her chair and sighed, obviously frustrated. "No," she admitted.

"What about before then?" asked Foggy. His frustration seemed to be matching that of his client. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Jennifer frowned, turning away from the two men. "Last thing...I remember..."

Matt sat on the edge of his chair, his attention entirely focused on Jennifer. "Ms. Wong, can you remember anything before you were left in this room?"

Jennifer turned her head toward Matt without facing him directly. She carefully considered the question, her face paling when she realized what the answer was. "No," she finally admitted quietly.

Matt jumped into action immediately, pounding on the door to get the attention of anyone he could attract from the bullpen. "OFFICERS!"

Foggy watched his partner's behavior in open-mouthed shock as an older black woman in a well-tailored suit answered Matt's call. "Is something wrong?"

"My client needs medical attention," Matt replied. "And crucial evidence will be lost if she's not seen within the hour."

The woman's voice held an air of authority. "I'll make sure it happens personally." She turned to the bullpen, and flagged down the familiar officer who was passing through the hallway. "LT!"

"Yes, sir?" LT asked, perking up at the call.

"Get these folks to the Medical Examiner's office at the 11th. I'll call ahead and let Doctor Morgan know you're coming."

"Yes, sir," LT agreed quickly.

Foggy was adding confusion to his shock. "The _Medical Examiner's_ office?"

The woman sighed, in no mood to have her orders questioned by a goofy-looking junior lawyer. "Is your client's life in danger?"

Foggy looked to Matt, who shook his head as subtly as he dared. "No," Foggy replied.

"Then it will be three hours before anyone at Metro General would be willing to _see_ your client, at which point it seems like your partner is pretty sure you'll lose whatever evidence you're looking for?"

Matt nodded. "We need a tox screen done. Immediately."

"Then I can promise you, the 11th is going to be your best chance to get one in the timeframe you're looking for," Gates insisted. "LT?"

LT nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Detective..." Foggy spoke up in protest.

The woman corrected him quickly. "*Captain* Victoria Gates. I'm in charge of this precinct, Mr..."

Foggy's bluster evaporated. "Nelson, ma'am," he stammered with nervous politeness. "Franklin Nelson."

Gates suppressed a chuckle at the name. "Mr. Nelson, we all know this case _stinks_. Now, I am going to do everything i can to help you get _real_ justice for your client, but in order to make sure that happens, I need you to trust me. Are we clear on that?"

Foggy swallowed hard, struck by a sudden attack of nerves. "Yes...yes, ma'am," he stammered.

"Good," Gates declared. "LT!"

"On it, sir," LT agreed. "Let's go, people."

Gates watched Jennifer Wong leave with LT and her lawyers, only speaking up again after the elevator doors had closed. "ELLIS!" she called.

Tory stumbled out of a nearby conference room. "Captain?"

"How's it going on that facial recognition I asked for?" asked Gates.

"Still working on it," Tory replied. "As far as I can tell, he's clean."

"Keep looking," Gates told her. The captain's voice grew quiet as her words became more for herself than for others. "There's something going on with that man. And I need to know what the hell that 'something' is."

#

Foggy spoke up the minute the three of them were settled in the back of the patrol car. "Okay, Matt. What's going on here? Really?"

"Our new client was drugged. Really."

"So why the big rush?" Foggy argued. "Why are we headed to some ME's office instead of a hospital? Wouldn't it take _several_ hours, if not days for the drugs to work their way out of her system?"

Matt shook his head. "The concentrations aren't that strong."

Foggy's eyes widened. "They're not?"

Matt shook his head again, pointing to his nose for clarification. "And I don't think they needed to be, under the circumstances."

Foggy frowned, clearly confused by the certainty of Matt's declaration. "Circumstances?"

"I suspect Ms. Wong has non-24. And has probably had it for a while."

"What the hell is non-24?"

"A sleep disorder," Matt explained. "It happens a lot to the blind."

Foggy mouthed a silent "oh". "So do you...?"

"You have to be 'totally' blind, Foggy," Matt replied, not wanting to go further in open company.

Foggy, for his part, filled in the unspoken gap and moved on. "So what does does non-24 do to you, exactly?"

"Well, light and darkness are usually how our bodies know when to stay up and when to sleep. If all you see is darkness, it can mess with that cycle."

Foggy caught on quickly. "So if this isn't treated..."

"Think about the worst all-nighter we ever pulled in law school. And multiply that times a hundred."

"Wow," Foggy mouthed in amazement. He then added that piece of information to the razor-thin pile of information they had about their new case. "Wait...if you gave me half a beer after one of those all nighters I'd have been on the _floor._ So if Ms. Wong was drugged, even a little bit..."

Matt nodded. "I don't think there's any chance she was in good enough shape for those confessions to be legit."

"So she's being framed for this," said Foggy.

"That's my theory," Matt agreed.

"By who?" asked Foggy. "Fisk is still in Rikers, awating trial. You don't think..."

Matt shook his head. "No, I don't think it's Fisk."

"Then who?!" Foggy exclaimed.

Matt nudged his head in LT's direction. "I have some...ideas," he replied, hoping Foggy got the implied message.

LT, for his part, ended the conversation by pulling into the parking space and shut off the engine. "We're here." The remaining walk to the morgue was spent in silence, save for the irrhythmic tapping of Matt and Jennifer's canes.


	3. Chapter 3

Doctor Henry Morgan looked up from his latest 'patient' to see LT leading a group that consisted of a blind man, a blind woman and a young gentleman whose patience seemed to be getting tested more and more by the minute. The doctor met the group as soon as LT closed the door behind them. "LT," he greeted the officer warmly, "it is good to see you."

"Good to see you too, Doc," LT replied with a smile. "Cap fill you in?"

"She did, she did," Henry replied, then turned to Matt, grabbing the distracted man's hand. "I am Doctor Henry Morgan," he introduced himself. "And you are...?"

"The _lawyers_ ," Foggy replied for Matt, deferring all attention to Jennifer and away from the way that Matt was clearly 'staring' at Henry. "Our client Ms. Wong needs a tox screen done. Immediately."

Henry blushed, pulling his hand away from Matt's and turning his attention to his true 'patient'. "Forgive me. All the captain had said was that my patient would be blind. I'll get a syringe. LT, if you could escort Ms. Wong and her attorneys to my office?"

"Sure thing, Doc," LT agreed with a shrug. He ushered the group into Henry's office while the doctor gathered up the tools necessary to draw blood.

Foggy ushered Matt into Henry's office and stood him behind Jennifer so that the doctor could have unrestricted access to his patient. Henry carefully laid his tools out on his desk before turning to his true patient. "Ms. Wong," he greeted Jennifer, not surprised by the lack of response that he received in return, "my name is Doctor Henry Morgan. I'm just going to draw some blood, if that's all right..."

Jennifer nodded. "All...all right."

Henry took note of Jennifer's disorientation as he worked. "How long ago was Ms. Wong drugged, gentlemen?"

"Within the past twelve hours," Matt replied, apparently having shaken off the source of his own disorientation. "Although I suspect she also has a severe circadian rhythm disorder."

The layman's diagnosis caught Henry'a attention. "How severe?"

"She can't remember events beyond the past hour," replied Matt.

The necessary blood drawn, Henry snapped off his gloves, seemingly coming to a decision. "LT," he instructed the officer, "take these gentlemen and their client to Metro General. You know who to ask for."

LT nodded. "Yes, sir."

"I'll start running the tests immediately..." Henry declared. The shrill ring of Henry's phone cut him off. "Doctor Morgan," Henry greeted the person on the phone. "Yes, I'll be right there." The ME then hung up the phone and ended the conversation as only a Medical Examiner could. "Unfortunately, though, I will have to pick up the results of those tests once I return, since I have to collect a body."

The three men nodded, allowing Henry the space to do his job. LT wrapped his arm around Jennifer's, gently guiding the blind woman down the long corridor. Foggy, though, pulled his partner back for as private a conversation as he dared. "Okay, what the hell was THAT?!" he exclaimed, forcing himself to keep his voice at barely above a whisper.

"What was what?" asked Matt.

"I have never seen you stare at anybody before in my _life,"_ Foggy spit out quickly, "so why in God's name were you _staring_ at that doctor?!"

Matt sighed, knowing that the tone in Foggy's voice meant that the other man wasn't going to let this go. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he insisted.

That may have qualified as the last argument Foggy was going to accept. "Tell me anyway," he argued.

Matt sighed again, this time in surrender. "I wasn't looking at 'Doctor Morgan'. At least, not like you guys saw him."

"You weren't?"

Matt shook his head. "For the first few minutes after we met the man, all I was looking at was veins."

Foggy's eyes widened. " _His_ veins? As in carries-the-blood-through-the-body veins?!"

 _"I have no idea what they were,"_ Matt spat out quickly. "But yes, until Doctor Morgan took that phone call all I could see were 'his' veins. And they were glowing."

Foggy's eyes looked like they were threatening to fall out of his head. "His veins were _glowing?"_ Matt nodded. "You sure we shouldn't be getting _you_ a tox screen?"

Matt didn't have an answer for that.

#

The cacophony of sounds in the Metro General emergency room were easy enough for Matt to filter out. It was your typical night: patients on mobile beds, waiting patiently for their opportunity to be seen by the overwhelmed staff; doctors and orderlies walking through the maze of beds with determined purpose as they moved from task to task and patient to patient; and nurses who slowly worked their way from one end of the room to the other and back, trying their best to take care of each and every patient in turn...

...except for one nurse, who was _intensely_ distracted by the presence of the one man that she never expected to see in her ER. Not alive, at any rate. Claire Temple knelt down next to Matt, talking at a voice the she hoped that only Matt would be able to hear while trying to make the gesture look as casual and 'normal' as possible. "What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice only keeping the barest hint of calm.

"I'm here with a client," Matt replied, his voice only slightly louder than Claire's. "She's here to see Dr. Driver..."

"Be careful around Driver," Claire warned. "She's a member of some group called the Network. I think they're a bunch of crazy superhero groupies or something. If they ever found out about you..."

"Thanks for the tip," Matt declared, cutting Claire off before the conversation could draw attention. "I'll be careful."

Claire stood up, putting a hand on Matt's shoulder to 'steady herself'. She then gave that shoulder a gentle squeeze before she moved on...the only gesture of affection Claire dared to give in a public space with a man that, technically, she wasn't supposed to know.

Foggy, though, knew about Claire's relationship with Matt. More importantly, he knew _how_ the couple had come to know each other. "Everything okay?" he asked Matt.

"I'll tell ya later," Matt replied.

The group was called in to a small alcove, where LT gently helped Jennifer onto the waiting gurney while Foggy 'escorted' Matt to the space alongside the bed. A blond-haired doctor blew into the room; her eyes never leaving her chart, her demeanor all business. "Okay, which one of you is Ms...Wong?"

LT fought to get the younger woman's attention. "Share?"

'Share' looked up at the sound of the familiar voice, relaxing only when she recognized the tall, black police officer. "Sorry, LT. When I heard a cop was bringing someone in, I guess I didn't make the connection. How ya been?"

"I been al'right," LT drawled. "You?"

Sharon let out a weary sigh. "It's been a very long day."

LT chuckled sympathetically. "I hear that."

The brief conversation with a perceived friend seemed to do wonders for Sharon's emotional state. She took in the composition of the group around her. Her eyes settled on her presumed 'patient', who was sitting on the gurney. "Ms. Wong?"

"Yes?" Jennifer replied.

Sharon jumped into action at the sluggishness in Jennifer's voice. Taking note of the cane that LT was holding as he was holding her patient's hand, Sharon pulled a pen light from her pocket, removed Jennifer's sunglasses from her eyes and shined the light in the eyes of her patient. "Totally blind?" she asked, figuring someone in the room would speak up and answer the question.

"That's my guess," Matt replied.

Sharon looked up, surprised to see that the blind guy was the one who had answered her question. "I suppose you might qualify as an expert," she suggested. Sharon turned off the pen light and put it back in her pocket before turning her attention back to Jennifer. "Do you know why you're here, Ms. Wong?"

Jennifer shook her head. "Tired," she replied before yawning.

Finding that answer unsatisfying, Sharon turned to the man who had just answered on her patient's behalf. "I suspect Ms. Wong has a severe circadian rhythm sleep disorder," said Matt. "And has been drugged within the past 12 hours."

Sharon raised a skeptical eyebrow, surprised by the detailed specificity of Matt's 'diagnosis'. "I don't suppose you know what she was drugged _with_ , do you?"

Matt remembered what Claire had said earlier about the doctor and swallowed his words, suddenly wishing he hadn't said as much as he already had. "I...I'm not sure," he lied.

Sharon stood up, studying Matt with disbelieving eyes before returning her focus to her patient. "I'll order a tox screen," she declared, thinking out loud. She then turned back to Matt. "How serious do you think this sleep disorder is, 'Doctor'...?"

"Murdock," Matt replied automatically. "When we tried to interview Ms. Wong back at the station her short-term memory had a lifespan of under an hour."

Sharon's eyes widened slightly. "That's pretty severe." She turned back to Jennifer, kneeling down so that she could look up at her patient. "Jennifer," Sharon cooed gently, "I'm gonna take you downstairs with me. We're going to take some blood and hook you up to some machines, but then you can sleep as long as you want and no one will disturb you..."

"NO!" Jennifer screamed, "My husband...I've gotta find him..."

Sharon looked to Matt for help. "We'll find your husband, Ms. Wong," he reassured her. "I promise."

Matt's soothing, confident tones seemed to placate Jennifer. "'Kay," she agreed with a nod.

"I'll set Ms. Wong up with a secure, private room in our sleep clinic," Sharon explained to the group. "We're gonna test her to nail down that diagnosis of non-24, then give her the chance to re-set her body clock."

"Will her memory return when she gets back to a normal sleep cycle?" asked Foggy.

Sharon shrugged. "It should," she replied. "But I have no way of knowing for certain." Sharon then looked up, turning her attention to the police officer in the room. "Can I assume Captain Gates will be setting up a guard outside of Ms. Wong's room?"

LT nodded. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the precinct, presumably to arrange the guard duty.

"How long before we're going to be able to talk to our client again?" asked Foggy.

Sharon frowned, carefully considering Foggy's question. "At least a day, maybe longer."

"She'll be safe here, Mr. Nelson," LT reassured Foggy. "I promise."

Matt and Foggy both sighed. Neither of them were completely sure that LT could, or would, deliver on that promise.

#

Sharon pulled out a cell phone as soon as LT left with the two lawyers and the orderly had collect her 'patient' so she could be admitted to the sleep clinic. The cell phone had only one dedicated number, which she dialed, then held the phone up to her ear. "This is Doc Clayton," she told the person on the other end of the line. "I think...I think I need to report an X-File."

#

Jo lifted the crime scene tape to allow Henry access to the scene. "What took you so long?" she teased. "It's not like we're _that_ far from your office..."

"I had an urgent tox screen to run," Henry explained as they walked to the waterside edge of the park. "For our 'friends' at the 12th precinct."

Jo mouthed a silent "oh" as she nodded, speaking again only after she and Henry climbed over the rope separating the park from the water's edge. "Jogger found the body half an hour ago. He's over giving Mike his statement."

Henry's focus is completely consumed by the deceased man at his feet. "This man was blind," he declared. "From the amount of scarring around his eyes I believe he was blinded by having acid splashed in his eyes sometime in adulthood."

"Do you have any idea how he died?" asked Jo.

Henry shook his head and stood over the body. "The body has been in the water for a few hours, but there's nothing obvious that I could point to that would delineate a clear cause of death." He looked over to his partner. "Did you find identification?"

Jo handed over a bagged wallet, with a laminated plastic card clearly visible outside of the wallet's soggy confines. "We found a state disability ID in the man's wallet. We're running it through the system now, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's fake..."

Henry's face paled as he recognized the name on the ID. "You might also want to check with the 12th precinct as well."

Jo instantly made the connection with the earlier conversation. "Henry..."

"If this man is who this ID says he is," Henry declared, "then the DA's office is already trying to convict this man's wife of his murder. Whether she committed the crime or not."

#


	4. Chapter 4

"You sure this isn't putting the cart before the horse, chief?"

Blair rolled his eyes. "Jim, think about this. How different is what we saw last night from what we saw when we were high on Golden? What if _that's_ what's coming? Or a worse drug? We need to be ready."

Jim sighed, knowing that his guide had a point. "What do you want me to do, Merlin?"

"Close your eyes and center yourself," Blair replied. "Let your other senses fill in the void."

Jim drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly, and did his best to obey his guide's instructions. "Okay."

"What do you see?"

"It's not like the dream, I'll tell you that much," Jim replied. "But if you guys want to start I'll give it my best shot."

Blair stepped forward and pushed the button on the observation room's intercom. "Okay, you heard Arthur, guys. You can begin anytime."

Katya's black belt class began their attack as requested, going after Jim first individually, then in pairs. The first group of three students had just started to fight Jim when Beckett joined Blair in the observation room. "Good morning, Agent Sandburg," she greeted him.

"Morning," Blair returned the greeting, his eyes never leaving his Sentinel. "You guys wrapped up that ghost hunting case?"

"Paperwork went on Claire's desk this morning, although I suspect most of the cleanup's going to be handled by the FBI." Beckett tilted her head toward the testing area, bringing the conversation back to the present activity. "What're you guys working on?"

Blair's face fell into a grim, determined mask. "Jim and I had an SDE last night."

Beckett's eyes widened, knowing that a Sentinel-Guide "shared dream experience" was fairly high up on their list of signs that something potentially bad and nasty was coming down the pipe. "What'd you guys dream about?"

"Nothing apocalyptic," Blair replied. "But in the dream, Jim had lost his sight. And with the SDE..."

Beckett waved off the rest of the explanation as the context of the training session fell into place. "Want 'em to take a crack at me, next?"

Blair considered the idea, only to smile as the second quartet of black-belts fell at Jim's feet. "I have a feeling this bunch might need a day or so before round two," he told Beckett.

The guide's focus on the training session was only broken when Ryan burst into the room, his heartrate spiking with urgent concern. "Guys, we need you in the lab. Henry thinks he might have something for us."

#

With Jennifer fast asleep and LT standing watch at the door to her hospital room, Foggy and Matt were unable to do anything else to help their client...while they were still at the hospital. However, it was clear to Foggy that his partner had a 'mask-based' agenda for this case and hell was going to freeze over for good before he let the 'Daredevil' keep another secret from him. "Okay, Matt, talk," Foggy demanded as soon as they got into the office. "Karen's gone for the day. It's just us. What's really going on here?"

"Remember how Fisk had his fingers in the Chinese heroin trade when he was in power?" asked Matt. Foggy nodded. "That operation was run by a woman named Madame Gao. She blinded all of her workers, then forced them to work in silence so that they only knew the miniscule part of their operation that they were responsible for."

"Jesus," Foggy exclaimed. "Was Jennifer one of her workers?"

Matt shook his head. "Jennifer isn't Chinese...or didn't you notice?" he teased.

Foggy rolled his eyes. "So she's not this Madame Gao's target?"

"I suspect her husband is part of the operation," Matt explained.

"Is?" asked Foggy, hanging hope on the way that Matt had phrased his last statement. "Do you think her husband might still be alive?"

Matt shrugged. "He's either still alive and back in the fold or he's been murdered to send a warning to the others that they can never escape and have a life away from Madame Gao...or something like that. Either way, looking for Madame Gao isn't an investigation I have any business doing as Jennifer Wong's defense attorney."

Foggy caught on quickly. "But as Daredevil..."

"It's what I do," Matt declared quietly. "You know that."

"I do," Foggy agreed begrudgingly. "What can I do to help?"

"See what you can find out about Judge Li and ADA Lu. There's no way those charges could have been railroaded through this fast unless both of them are in Madame Gao's pocket."

Foggy seemed to be inspired by the idea of being able to help. "I'm on it."

#

The few people in the large lab were clustered at one end of the room, surrounding one of the two autopsy tables that defined the Network's small 'morgue' space. Beckett took charge of the meeting as soon as she entered the room. "You got something for us, Doc?"

The rest of the group stepped back to allow Ellison and Beckett unrestricted access to the doctor and his 'patient'. "Mistress, meet Daichi Wong. Tentative cause of death: electrocution."

Ellison and Beckett were both hung up on the first word in Henry's last sentence. "Tentative?" asked Ellison.

"His central nervous system is completely fried," Henry explained.

Beckett nodded. "I can smell it," she agreed. "Only faint traces, though."

"The body washed up in Riverside Park," added Henry, "roughly two hours ago. I estimate that he was in the water for less than twelve hours, which was long enough to destroy much of the trace evidence. But my biggest quandry is the fact that there are no entry scars."

"The amount of energy that would be needed to do that kind of damage would leave burn marks at the point where the current entered the body," Lanie chimed in.

"Except in this case," Henry declared. "Which means that the energy that did this was either self-administered by the victim feeding a tube down his own throat without leaving a mark..."

Ellison understood where Henry's diagnosis was headed. "Or the energy in question was supernatural in origin."

Henry nodded again. "However, I didn't want to officially hand off the case without getting a second opinion."

Ellison and Beckett took positions at opposite ends of the table, opening their sight and touch in a dance that was becoming increasingly familiar. Blair kept a watchful eye over Hunter and Sentinel as they worked, making sure that his Sentinel, in particular, didn't zone out. "Talk to us, guys," he instructed them. "What are you seeing?"

Ellison and Beckett pulled their senses back with shared expressions of defeat. "You were right, Doc," said Beckett. "I can't find any evidence of electrical burns on his skin."

"Neither can I," Ellison agreed.

"I'll call Grumpy, see what else we can find out from Mr. Wong," announced Lanie. "You'll send us all the notes from your initial examination?"

Henry sighed and nodded, accepting the inevitable. "Thank you. I'll also let Jo know that you're taking over the case...oh, and you might want to call Captain Gates, as well."

The offhand reference to their old captain stuck out to the Guardians. "Gates?" asked Ryan. "Why?"

"Evidently, the District Attorney's office has already filed charges against the wife," Henry explained.

The eyes of the Guardians widened almost in unison. "That's quick," exclaimed Castle. "What do they have?"

Henry shrugged. "The captain didn't say. Although, she did ask me to run an urgent tox screen that she believes will allow the wife to...I believe the term is 'alibi out'?"

"I'll call Gates," Beckett volunteered. "Get more of the details from her."

#

Captain Gates slammed down her phone's receiver, then rested her head in her hands, massaging her temples to stave off the approaching headache. She shuffled around the papers on her desk that made up the file on the Daichi Wong murder. The witness statements were the worst pieces of fiction that she had read...well, since the last time she had _tried_ to read one of Castle's novels. There was absolutely no other evidence tying Jennifer Wong to the crime. She had no motive. And now, the results of Doctor Morgan's tox screen and Doctor Driver's physical examination provided an all-but-perfect alibi. It seemed next to impossible that Jennifer Wong was anything but unconscious at the time of her husband's murder. There's no way she could possibly be the one that killed him.

So why, in God's name, was the DA's office refusing to budge?

Gates stared out of the window, letting her thoughts wander to Jennifer Wong's defense attorney...and her suspicions about how the man spent his 'off-hours'. In her younger days, the idea of a vigilante working in her city would have driven her absolutely mad. She would have moved heaven and earth to bring the man to 'justice', determined to show the world that cops - and only cops - were the ones that needed to be going after the bad guys.

But that was in the days before the Guardians. Before a ragtag team of superheroes showed her that there was far, far more to the world around her than what she had, to that point, assumed to be the 'real world'. And when the world around you included wizards and witches, demons and monsters...those were threats that a cop, *any* cop, was never going to be trained to handle... _is that it?_ thought Gates. _Is Murdock, if he's this 'Daredevil', some new addition to the Guardians? And if he is another 'adopted' Guardian...why wasn't I informed?_

Gates picked up the phone the next time it rang, relieved, for once, to see a very familiar number. "Good evening, Agent Beckett. Or...I suppose it is Agent Castle, now?"

Beckett smiled on the other end of the line. "It's still Beckett, Captain. At least for the time being."

"So how can I help you this evening, Agent?" Gates replied, hoping that her suspicions were soon to be confirmed.

"Just a courtesy call, sir. I wanted to let you know we'll be taking the Wong case off your hands."

Gates almost groaned with relief as the twenty-ton weight lifted from her shoulders. "Beckett, you have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that."

"Why is that?" asked Beckett, accepting the invitation to poke around for the remaining information that she was looking for.

"The DA pushed through charges against Mrs. Wong based on the testimony of four witness who all say that they heard her confess to the murder. However, after reading the confessions for myself, I couldn't think of a prosecutor in the world who would accept these losers as the star witnesses for their murder case."

"That bad, huh?"

Gates nodded even though the Guardian on the other end of the line couldn't see it. "Awful. I was just about to call IAB and request their assistance."

Beckett was starting to wish that she already had a copy of the file in front of her. "You suspect corruption in the DA's office?"

"Trust me, once you see this file, so will you," agreed Gates. "I'll have it messengered to you first thing in the morning."

"Thank you, Captain."

"Agent Beckett, it is probably I who should be thanking you," Gates replied. "But can I make one request...for future reference?"

Beckett frowned, confused by the question. "Of course...sir?"

"The next time you find a new Guardian, can you let me know about him before you let him loose inside my precinct? Or at least let me know that he _exists?"_

Beckett's confusion grew exponentially. "Who are you talking about? What new Guardian?"

Gates realized that she was now just as confused as Beckett. "You mean Mrs. Wong's lawyer isn't a member of the Network?"

Beckett had to resist the urge to stare at the phone. " _Whose_ lawyer?!"


	5. Chapter 5

Gates found herself in the warehouse's bullpen before the south stairwell's door had the chance to close behind her. "That was quick," she commented.

Beckett ignored the comment and got straight to the point. "Captain, what led you to believe that one of Mrs. Wong's lawyers might be a Guardian?"

"Mrs. Wong was drugged to unconsciousness on the night of the murder," Gates explained. "Mister Murdock recognized that she was drugged and didn't just call for the test. He _insisted_ that the test needed to be performed in under an hour from the time he met Mrs. Wong for the first time."

"Why is that important?" asked Ryan.

"I sent them to Doc to get the test done," Gates replied. "He just called me with the results. Murdock was _dead on:_ not only was Jennifer Wong drugged, if we had waited an hour longer to do the test, then the drug wouldn't have shown up in her system."

Castle frowned. "That's one hell of a quick dissolving drug..."

Gates shook her head. "That's not it. Mrs. Wong has a severe sleep disorder that might have knocked her out all on its own. She only needed a tiny dose of the drug to render her unconscious. By the time we got to her, only trace amounts of the drug were left in her system."

"So how did he know that Mrs. Wong had been drugged?" asked Beckett.

"That is the question of the hour," Gates agreed with a nod. "The only way Murdock could have pegged something like that was if he's a Guardian, a Sentinel, or has the nose of a damn bloodhound."

Blair perked up at the mention of his old field of study. "You think this Murdock might be a Sentinel?"

Gates nodded. "There is something else...but it's probably more of a hunch."

"What is it?" asked Esposito.

Gates offered Esposito her hand in response. "It's easier if you see for yourself."

Esposito took his old captain's hand, downloading her memories...and her hunches...with a single touch. "You think Matt Murdock is Daredevil?"

Gates nodded again. "It's more of a cop hunch than anything else. He matches the height, the build, and that sightless mask..."

Esposito agreed, "yeah, it fits the idea of Daredevil being blind."

Blair's eyes widened. "This guy you're talking about is _blind?!"_

"He is," Gates replied.

"Then he can't be a Sentinel," Blair insisted. "He might have heightened senses, but all five can't be heightened if he's lost..."

"Do we know where this Murdock guy is now?" Beckett pressed, not wanting to get into a hair-splitting argument with an academic.

Ryan typed a few queries into the laptop on his desk and quickly came up with the information that Beckett was looking for. "Matt Murdock is a partner in the law firm of Nelson and Murdock in Hell's Kitchen," he read off of the screen before looking up at his fellow Guardian. "Hell's Kitchen...I've heard that that's this Daredevil's stomping grounds, too."

"Then maybe it's time I go hunting for a devil," Beckett declared.

#

It was almost too easy. Crack a couple of skulls together and Matt discovered the location of Madame Gao's new hideout in under half an hour. She had to be up to something, Matt was certain of it. But what?

From his perch on top of a nearby tenement, Matt focused on the warehouse scene as it was unfolding below him. He could pick out the sound of at least two dozen guards armed with AK-47s. The smell of heroin was so pervasive Matt started to wonder if he was getting a psychosomatic contact high. _That would explain that...weird glow I'm seeing, at any rate..._ He couldn't get much of a 'view' of the workers from his perch, but the ones that he saw were just as blind as they were when he first encountered them. _But where is Madame Gao?_

Matt took a running leap, landing with a roll on the top of the warehouse. The sound of his weight hitting gravel caught the attention of a couple of the top floor guards, so he hid behind the roof access door as the two men stormed through it, then ambushed them, knocking both men out before either had the chance to return a punch. He worked his way down the catwalk foot by foot, taking out the handful of guards he found with as much stealth as he could muster...mostly by suffocating each guard from behind until they collapsed, unconscious, at his feet.

The catwalk ended at a ring of offices that circled the second floor of the building. The floor underneath his feet was cement, giving him not just stability, but the cover of silence. Eight guards watched over that floor, their positions lit by the reflected glow of the large hanging lamps that illuminated the workspace below them. Matt knew he could take down the four guards on one side of the balcony...but there was no way he could do it without revealing his own position and pinning him down in a hail of bullets from the four guards on the other..."What the...?"

Matt watched, astonished, as that 'weird glow' crept away from his peripheral vision and, one by one, took out the guards on the other balcony. Without a single one of 'his' guards noticing what was going on right in front of them until the four men were slumping heaps on the ground at their posts.

By that point, the 'glow' was safely under cover behind a cluster of shipping crates on the other side of the room. Then, from the other end of the warehouse, the glow spurred the Daredevil into action. By talking to him _._ "You coming, Murdock," the 'glow' teased him, "or you just gonna sit there all night?"

"Yes, ma'am," Matt replied. The four guards on his side of the balcony were ready for him after watching their compatriates go down, so the fight was the hardest of the night to that point. Matt rolled his shoulders and cracked his jaw, stopping to catch his breath...and to confront the glowing woman who had just proven herself to be his ally. He hoped. "You know my name," Matt told the woman as she came out from behind the crates. "Can I know yours?"

"Later," Beckett insisted, her senses opened to keep aware of as many potential dangers as she could check for. "So far I've tried to assume you're not just punching bad guys for your own amusement. Where's your target?"

"Right here."

Matt and Beckett turned to face the old Asian woman who had just entered their conversation. "Madam Gao, I presume?" asked Beckett.

Madame Gao used her cane as a crutch to gently curtsy. "The very same." She then turned all of her attention to Matt. "And so, as I have returned to New York City, the man in the mask has returned to stop me. Or should I call you...Daredevil?"

Matt and Beckett both gasped. Not because of Madame Gao's question, but because of the child that came around from behind the old woman's peasant skirts. Matt's world was usually so full of light that it felt like it was on fire most of the time, but when the boy stood next to Madame Gao Matt didn't see light. He saw darkness. A black silhouette that was as dark as his ally's silhouette was bright. Matt had no idea what that darkness was, but it terrified him to the core of his being.

Beckett, though, knew _exactly_ what that darkness was. And knew that there was no way she and 'Daredevil' could possibly fight it alone. She reached into the core of her being and sent a desperate message to her husband and soul-mate. _Castle, get us out of here, NOW!_

#

Beckett watched sympathetically as Matt staggered back, his senses overwhelmed by the sudden, disorienting change in his surroundings. "Take deep breaths, Matt," she reassured him. "A jump like that can do a nasty number on hypersenses when you're not prepared for it."

Matt stood up, shaking his head as his senses took another unexpected assault. "All right, who the hell are you people?" he demanded.

"My name's Kate Beckett," Beckett introduced herself, giving Matt a familiar voice to latch onto. "I'm one of Guardians."

Matt recognized the title immediately. "Guardians?" he gasped. "So you guys are real."

"As is the Daredevil," Beckett countered.

"Touché," Matt agreed with a chuckle. "Doctor Morgan at the 11th...he's one of you guys? A Guardian?"

Blair's eyes widened. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

Matt turned his head in Blair's direction, then scanned the room, trying and failing to comprehend what his senses were telling him. _They seem to know who I am,_ he thought, _and if they're anything like all the rumors say they are..._ "Doctor Morgan...glows, for lack of a better way of describing it. Same as you guys. Well, some of you, anyway." When knowing glances shot around the room, Matt started to feel like the odd man out. "What?"

"That...glow you're sensing?" Beckett replied. "We call it auras. It's the energy that fuels our abilities."

Matt nodded, taking the explanation on faith for the moment. "And what about the animal farm?"

Blair stepped forward, taking over the conversation as his curiosity threatened to overwhelm him. "Animal farm?"

Matt looked down at Blair's feet. "Your pet wolf, your friend's panther, and if I'm not mistaken..." He tilted his head, filtering his hearing until he had confirmed his suspicions. "Two tigers in some kind of office down the hall?"

" _Two_ tigers?" Beckett asked the group, confused only by the number.

"Cerberus is in town," Jim replied, "status report on the fight with HYDRA."

Blair ignored his teammates, focusing entirely on the new player in front of him. "You can sense them? All of them?"

Matt frowned, confused by the question. "You can't?"

"They're spirit animals," Blair explained. "Even Beckett has to focus to see them."

"I have to concentrate _not_ to see them," Matt countered. "Same with these...auras."

Blair started bouncing on his heels with excitement. "I may have been wrong about you, Mr. Murdock..." he muttered underneath his breath. " _Really_ wrong about you..."


	6. Chapter 6

Blair turned to Ryan. "Master Mùshī," he asked, "I have an idea. I could really use your help with it."

Jim found that, for once, he had a fairly clear idea of what his guide was thinking. "Blair, you think he's...?"

"I'm what?" Matt asked as Blair nodded.

"Jennifer Wong," Jim asked Matt, "is she blind?"

The question threw Matt for a loop. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

That was all the confirmation Blair needed. "Mister Murdock," Blair explained, "I'd like to get a look inside your head. See the world through your eyes."

"How?" asked Matt.

"Mr. Murdock, my name's Kevin Ryan," Ryan introduced himself, taking his lead from his partner. "I'm a telepath. I can read minds and project thoughts into people's heads...both my thoughts and the thoughts of somebody else. With your permission, I'd like to make a connection between your head and Doctor Sandburg's..."

Blair blushed at the mention of his name, realizing for the first time that, in his excitement, he had forgotten to introduce himself. "I am _so_ sorry," he apologized. "Mr. Murdock, I'm Doctor Blair Sandburg. I'm something of a specialist in helping people with hypersenses. Like you."

"A _specialist?"_ Matt exclaimed. "There's that many of us out there?"

"Well, at least three of us," Beckett replied, half-smirking. "In this room."

Stunned by the declaration, Matt scanned the room. He weakly pointed to Ellison and Beckett when they each nodded in his direction. "You two...are like me?" Matt shook his head when the pair both nodded a second time. "This night just keeps getting crazier and crazier..."

"Mr. Murdock," Ryan spoke up, trying to get back to the request that had been made of him. "May I?"

Matt turned back to Ryan, trying to process what he had told him alongside the news he had just heard. Finally, he pulled his hood back, exposing his full face for the first time as he smiled and collapsed in the nearest chair. "Well, if you're going to be spending time in my head, you should probably call me Matt."

Ryan smiled in return. "It's nice to meet you, Matt."

Blair closed his eyes when the Guardian opened the requested connection and gasped at what he saw. "Thank you," he told Ryan, effectively asking him to close the connection. Blair then turned to his partner. "It's him. He's the guy we saw."

"I am?" asked Matt, thoroughly confused.

"Long story," Blair replied. "And I promise I'll tell you all about it at some point. But for now, why don't we start with why you can see auras and spirit animals?" Matt nodded. "You're a Sentinel. Someone who was born with five senses enhanced to levels far beyond those of any 'normal' man."

"I was _born_ with this ability?" Matt argued. "But...I don't remember anything like that...before..."

Blair made the connection immediately. "Before you lost your sight?" Matt nodded. "Did you grow up in the city?"

"Born and raised in Hell's Kitchen," Matt replied.

"Then there's you explanation," Blair insisted. "A Sentinel develops their gifts from long periods of time alone. Mostly in nature. In New York City, your body would have suppressed your abilities purely out of self-preservation. How'd you lose your sight?"

Matt hesitated, as he always did when he talked about that particular memory. "Car accident. I was doused with chemicals when I pushed an old man out of the way of a truck. It hit me instead."

Blair grinned, not surprised that the boy who became the Daredevil would have lost his sight saving the life of another. "And how were your senses after the accident?"

"Off the charts. I almost lost my mind."

"Your body was trying to compensate for the loss of such a dominant sense. I *think* your sixth sense is what's doing the compensating."

Matt frowned, his willingness to believe Blair's explanation stunted by his last sentence. "I'm not psychic, Doctor..."

"I never said you were," Blair countered. "There's a spirit plane that exists side-by-side with this one. Normal people can't see it, or feel it. A regular Sentinel can develop a sense of this plane with time and training. But because of your blindness, Matt, I think _you_ see _it_ like the rest of us see the 'regular' world. That sensitivity to the spirit plane has replaced your sight as your fifth sense."

While Matt was having trouble processing Blair's explanation, Jim picked up on it immediately. "That's why he sees so much differently then I do?"

"I think so, yeah," Blair told Jim. Matt turned to Jim, curious about the question he had just asked. Jim hesistated, uncomfortable to be the one to deliver that particular explanation. So Blair spoke for his Sentinel. "Dreams are one way that Sentinels and Guides can access the spirit plane. Last night, Jim and I dreamt about you. That's how I recognized you."

"You...dreamt about me?" Matt asked warily, clearly growing skeptical of Blair's expertise.

In his excitement, Blair ignored Matt's skepticism and nodded. "When Jim closes his eyes, he can only fill in the gaps with outlines. Like a negatiye copy of the what he would see with his eyes open. That fire that you see? That's the spirit plane."

Matt's head was starting to spin. He staggered, suddenly dizzy as the mental strain of processing Blair's explanation combined with his exhaustion and the handful of injuries he sustained in the fight. "Sorry," he apologized. "Long night, I guess."

Lanie stepped forward. "Matt, my name's Lanie Esposito. I'm a healer. I could help you with your injuries, if you'd like. Looks like it was one hell of a fight."

"I've been through worse," Matt insisted with a chuckle. When that chuckle twinged in his gut, though, curiosity won out over masculine pride. "What do you need me to do?"

Lanie shook her head, smiling reassuringly. "Just give me your hand."

The wash of warmth that flooded Matt's body was like nothing he had ever felt before. He closed his eyes, drinking in the sensations that were flooding every fiber of his being. It took what felt like an eternity of being lost and suspended in that wonderful haze...but when Matt opened his eyes, he felt better than he had ever felt in his life. "How did you do that?" he gasped, gazing at Lanie in amazement.

Lanie, for her part, was far less awestruck by what she had seen. In fact, her emotional state could be better described as...annoyed. "Goddamn Sentinels and their pain tolerances," she grumbled.

Jim chuckled at the healer's complaint. "Finally, I won't be the only one she gets pissed at."

"You never were," Esposito deadpanned.

Lanie ignored the two men, focusing exclusively on her patient. "I'm not going to list the number of injuries I've just healed, or the locations of every _pound_ of scar tissue I've just cleared out of your body. But just know that if it's another five years before I see you again I'm _not_ going to be a happy camper. Is that clear?"

"Yes...yes, ma'am," Matt stammered in reply, reacting almost instinctively to the tone in Lanie's voice. It was only then that Matt realized the one thing that Lanie _didn't_ heal. "I'm still blind."

"That was a deliberate choice on my part, I'm afraid," Lanie admitted. "I _could_ heal your eyes..."

Matt suddenly found himself on unsteady legs, despite his recent healing. "You can?"

Lanie nodded. "But I have no idea what that will do to your senses. Your brain re-wired itself around your blindness, and I have no idea how your gifts would adjust if I brought your sight back. I don't even know if you'd stay a Sentinel."

"And I think we're at a point where we need your gifts more than ever," Beckett declared.

 _"My_ gifts?" asked Matt. "Why?"

Beckett turned to the group to reply to Matt's question. "When I found Matt I saw why you and Blair dreamed about him, Jim. The woman Matt was following tonight had a kid. Maybe a grandson. The thing is...I'm pretty sure the kid was fog-possessed."

The group seemed to let out an almost collective curse of frustration, which confused Matt. "What's this fog possession?"

"There's this entity we've encountered a couple of times," Ryan explained, his eyes never losing their haunted look. "We've just taken to calling it the black fog. It's...pure evil is pretty much the only way I can describe it."

Castle turned to his wife. "That's why you begged me to get you out of there."

"You?" asked Matt.

"Richard Castle," Castle introduced himself. "I''m a wizard."

Matt frowned for only a few seconds, taking in the announcement in the context of everything he had sensed and experienced over the course of the night. "Okay..."

"It seemed like the old woman was the one in charge, though," Beckett continued, ignoring the exchange between the two men. "If she knew what the kid was she didn't acknowledge it. At least to us."

"Or you guys might have just disappeared before she had the chance to sic the kid on you," Castle suggested. Beckett nodded in agreement.

Matt frowned, clearly lost in thought...until Beckett turned to him, looking for answers. "This wasn't your first run in with Madame Gao, was it?" asked Beckett.

Matt shook his head. "She's the mastermind of the triad's local heroin operation." His memories went back to his first encounter with Madame Gao. "I think she knows about the kid."

Ryan caught a fleeting thought as it ran through Matt's mind. "You know what the kid is, too, don't you?"

Matt shook his head again. "All I know is that the kid is a weapon called a Black Sky. A friend of mine came into town a few months ago chasing down a different one. I refused to kill a kid, so he took out the last Black Sky with an arrow through the heart." He shuddered as his mind replayed his more recent encounter with the 'Black Sky'. "Now I understand why."

"How sure are you that Madame Gao would know about the kid?" asked Esposito.

"Ninety percent," Matt replied. "An associate of Madame Gao's was the one who tried to bring the first Black Sky into the country. If she was able to get her hands on a different one, she knows what it is. And what it can do."

Beckett looked over at the nearest computer, finally checking the time. "Okay, people. It's 7am. There's no way in the world that Madame Gao hasn't done anything but burn the location that we found her at tonight. Which means we have roughly 13 hours to go find where she's moved to." She then turned to Matt. "You've had one hell of a night, Mr. Murdock."

"Yeah, tell me about it," he agreed.

"I'm going to have Castle take you home," she told Matt. "Unless you'd rather stay and work with Doctor Sandburg?"

Matt shook his head. "Not that I don't want to work with you, Doctor Sandburg. I do, very much. But in order to get time away I'm going to need to take care of some things at the office."

Sandburg nodded understandingly. "I used to work as an associate professor and moonlight as a police consultant. Believe me, I know the whole double life thing far too well."

Beckett handed Matt a blank business card with a phone number on it. "Call this number when you're ready for Castle to come get you."

With no pockets in his costume, Matt slipped the card inside one of his sleeves as he stood up and made his way over to Castle. "Don't you need my address or something?"

"May I?" Esposito volunteered. Castle took a step back as Esposito explained to Matt, "My gift is that I read and retain memories. If you'll let me, I can copy yours and be able to use your memories like I had lived them myself. Including any experiences you've had with Madame Gao."

Matt shrugged and offered Esposito his hand. When the two men shook hands, Esposito let out a low whistle. "I don't envy you one bit, bro," he told Matt.

"It has its moments," Matt added with a chuckle.

Castle turned to Ryan. "So where'm I headed?"

Ryan made the connection between Castle and Esposito, letting the simple flash of memory pass between the three men. Castle gawked at the powerful intensity of the different way that Matt Murdock saw the world. "Wow," he exclaimed. "That's...that's *incredible*.

"Says the _wizard,"_ Matt countered. Castle relaxed with a chuckle. "You know where you're going?" asked Matt.

Castle nodded before turning to give his wife a gentle kiss on the cheek. "I'll be back soon, honey."

Beckett nodded, returning her soul-mate's smile before turning back to Matt. "It's been a pleasure to meet you, Matt Murdock."

"Same," Matt returned. "I'll see you tonight."

#

The two men appeared in the space between the living room and kitchen in Matt's living room...only to find that they weren't alone. Foggy jumped up like the couch was on fire. "Matt!" he exclaimed. "What's going on? Where were you? Where did you guys come from?!"

Castle took the smile on Matt's face as a sign that the panicking man in front of them was friend and not foe. "He knows?"

"He knows," Matt confirmed. "Richard Castle, meet my best friend Foggy Nelson. Foggy, meet Richard Castle."

Foggy frowned, confused. "The author?"

Matt turned to Castle. "Author?"

"I've written a few books," Castle replied.

Matt nodded, blowing off the information with a shrug. "He's also a wizard and member of the Guardians."

Foggy's eyes flew wide. "The _Guardians?!_ How long have you been working with them?!"

"About three hours," Matt replied. "I ran into one of them when I went after Madame Gao..."

Foggy let out a low whistle. "Wow," he exclaimed, "what are the odds..."

"Better than you'd think, actually," Castle admitted. "Beckett was following you."

"She was?" asked Matt, clearly surprised by the idea.

Castle nodded. "Before we became Guardians, most of us were cops. 12th Precinct homicide."

"Captain Gates," Matt blushed, shaking his head.

"She is in something of a...unique position," Castle explained, "but you might want to watch how quickly you share evidence in the future. Especially things you find through certain...unique forms of investigation." Matt nodded, but guilt was written across his face. "We had to lie for months before we finally told Captain Gates," Castle added. "It's a necessary evil if you want to keep your secret."

Matt smiled as he slowly started to appreciate the resource that was now available to him. "Thanks, Castle."

"Anytime," Castle returned with a shrug. "Is your guide coming with you tonight?"

"Guide?" Matt and Foggy both asked in unison.

Castle studied Foggy, then Matt, and finally shrugged. "You might want to call after lunch," he told them. "Give Sandburg the afternoon to work with you two."

Foggy jumped when Castle disappeared, before turning to Matt in the hopes of alleviating his confusion. "Do you have _any_ idea what he was talking about?"

"Some," Matt replied. "It's kind of a long story."

#


	7. Chapter 7

It had suddenly become "Casual Friday" at the offices of Nelson and Murdock.

On a Tuesday.

Which was probably a good thing, since Foggy was so distracted that it was becoming harder and harder for anything or anyone to get his attention. "Foggy?" Matt called in a gentle sing-song, waving a hand in front of his friend's face. "Earth to Foggy..."

Foggy shook his head, his concentration returning to the present with a jolt. "Sorry," he blushed, chuckling nervously. "Guess my head's not in paperwork today."

"I could make the call _now,"_ Matt teased, only half-joking. Foggy swallowed nervously, trying and failing to fight off a sudden attack of nerves...and causing Matt to chuckle. The 'blind' man sat down in the 'client chair' across from his partner's desk as he filtered through the signs of his best friend's emotional turmoil. "You know," Matt admitted, "I have no idea what they're going to ask _me_ to do, either..."

"Yeah, but _you're_ already the superhero," Foggy countered. "All I've had to do so far is send you off to kick ass and take names. Now, I'm going to be expected to actually _contribute_ something."

Matt smiled, hoping his friend would find it reassuring. "I'm sure you'll do just fine."

Foggy perked up at his friend's complete confidence. "You think so?"

"Absolutely," Matt insisted. He leaned forward in the chair, completely focused on his friend. "You know, it's not like you squeaked by in law school by cheating off my tests..."

"As if I could have," Foggy agreed with a chuckle.

Matt shared in his friend's laughter for a bit before returning to getting his point across. "Foggy, you are so much smarter than I think you give yourself credit for, sometimes. Whatever they ask you to do, I'm sure you're going to be great."

"You really think so?" asked Foggy.

"I really do," Matt replied.

Foggy drew in a deep breath, then let it all out at once. "All right," he declared. "Call him. Let's do this thing."

Matt pulled the business card out of his pocket and handed it to Foggy. "Uh, you should probably make the call..."

Foggy took the card and reached over for his phone, but pulled his hand back at the last second. "We're going to this place to work on taking your abilities to the next level, right?"

"Yeah..." Matt replied warily.

"Let's start now," Foggy declared.

 _This should be interesting,_ thought Matt. "What did you have in mind?"

Foggy handed the business card back to his friend. "You call them."

"How am I supposed to get the number?" asked Matt.

Foggy grinned wickedly. "You're the one with the hyperactive sense of touch. If _I_ can feel the impressions a ball point pen makes on a business card, it should be a cakewalk for _you."_

Matt took the card, turning it around in his hands as if he was unsure which end was up. Finally making a decision as to a course of action, Matt put the card down on the desk, moving his fingers across the writing as if he were reading braille.

Foggy noticed that Matt's fingers slowed down as they moved across the phone number. "You can feel the difference, right?"

Matt nodded. "Honestly, it's been so long since I've read anything but braille that I'm mostly having trouble making out what some of the numbers are."

"Why don't you describe them to me," Foggy suggested as he grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from his desk, "and I'll try to write them down."

"Okay," Matt agreed with a shrug. He turned his focus back to the card. "The first number is a half-heart with a straight line at the bottom."

"That's a two," said Foggy.

Matt felt the curves on the paper that surrounded the number. "Parentheses...area code 212, maybe?"

"212," Foggy repeated.

Matt moved on to the next part of the number. "Okay, the next number is...half a square and half...no...two-thirds of a circle?"

Foggy squiggled a couple of different options on the paper before he found the number that matched Matt's description. "Five," he told Matt.

"555, then," Matt declared.

The last four numbers went by quickly. "So is that it?" Matt asked. "Did I get the number right?"

Foggy didn't give a definitive answer; he simply picked up the receiver of his old desk phone and offered it to Matt. "Call it and see for yourself."

Matt walked around the desk and took the receiver from Foggy's hand, using the buttons to dial the number before placing the handset to his ear...then holding the devices at arms' length as a string of deep, growling curses could be heard by everyone in the room. "I don't think that was the right number, Foggy."

Foggy smirked shamelessly, ruthlessly enjoying his best friend's embarrassment. "I think that last number was a one, not a seven."

Matt glared at Foggy. "You know, you could have just told me."

"Where's the fun in that?" Foggy teased, his smlie growing just a tiny bit wider.

Matt shook his head before bringing the handset back up to his ear and dialing the corrected number. "Matthew Murdock," he told the person on the other end of the line. "I'm calling for Richard Castle."

 _"One moment, please,"_ the receptionist replied.

Castle appeared in the law office before anyone else came to the phone. "You guys are early," he told them.

Matt and Foggy jumped at the sound, then quickly relaxed, congratulating each other with a fist bump. "Is Doctor Sandburg busy?" asked Matt. "We can go later if he's not ready."

"He's been pacing the training room for an hour," Castle admitted. "Jim thinks he's been looking forward to doing something like this for years. You guys ready to go?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Foggy declared, overtaken by a sudden attack of nerves.

Matt nudged his friend. "You just taught a blind guy to use the telephone," he teased. "You can do that, you can do _anything."_

While Foggy broke down laughing, Castle just stared at the two men, confused by the inside joke. "What was that about?"

"Nothing," Matt replied. "We're ready to go."

"Not yet," Castle argued. He took Matt's cane, resting it beside Foggy's desk, then took Matt's glasses off and set them on Foggy's desk next to the cane. " _Now_ you're ready to go."

The three men disappeared a moment later.

#

The first thing Matt and Foggy noticed was the gravel underneath their feet. Foggy looked up to the sky, drinking in the bright mid-morning sun as he fought to get his bearings. "Where are we?" Foggy asked, not knowing if there was anyone around him who could answer the question.

"You're in the Bronx," Sandburg replied.

The two men turned around to find two men and a woman standing behind them. Matt took care of the introductions. "Foggy, meet Guardian Kate Beckett, Doctor Blair Sandburg and..."

"Jim Ellison," Jim introduced himself. "I'm a Sentinel. Like your friend Matt here."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Ellison," Foggy replied politely, shaking the third hand that had been offered to him in greeting. "Is Doctor Sandburg your doctor, too?"

Jim and Blair looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" asked Matt, wondering what his friend had said that was so amusing.

"I'm an anthropologist," Blair explained. "The doctorate's an academic title."

Matt frowned, his confusion deepening as he thought about everything they had discussed earlier. "So how..."

"I only briefly mentioned Guides in our earlier conversation," Blair replied, "but the reason that I'm an expert on Sentinels is that I'm Jim's Guide."

"You're a Guide?" asked Foggy. "For how long?"

"Past fifteen years," said Blair. "We just retired from the Cascade PD a few months ago."

Matt recalled Blair's earlier casual reference to his old 'double life'. "That's what you were doing as a police consultant. Working with Jim." Blair nodded, so Matt went to the one question that was on his mind. "When Castle dropped me off earlier, he seemed to assume that Foggy was _my_ Guide."

"My husband has been working on being more sensitive to small traces of magic," Beckett explained. "He _says_ that he feels an energy spike when a Sentinel is in close proximity to their Guide. And that he feels that same spike when you're standing next to your friend there."

Matt and Foggy looked at each other, instantly evaluating their relationship in a whole new light. "Really?" both men asked in unison.

Beckett nodded. "I feel it, too."

"You _do?"_ asked Foggy, still trying to wrap his head around the concept.

Blair was bouncing on his heels at Beckett's confirmation of Castle's hunch. "Actually, gentlemen...that spike is what we're here to test."

"And...you've lost me," Matt declared.

Blair began his instructions by turning to Foggy. "Mr. Nelson..."

"Please," Foggy interrupted eagerly, "Mr. Nelson's my dad. Call me Foggy."

"Okay," Blair agreed. "Foggy, I'm about to throw you into the deep end of the pool..."

Feeling brave, Foggy waved off the warning. "Just tell me what you need me to do."

"All right," said Blair before turning to Matt. "Matt, how would you like to see again?"

"WHAT?!" Foggy exclaimed. "You can give him his eyesight back?!"

Blair shook his head. " _I_ can't. But if you're really Matt's Guide, you're about to...at least temporarily."

"ME?!" Foggy replied, still gobsmacked by the idea. "How?!"

"Stand next to each other, side by side," Blair instructed them. When Matt and Foggy were in position, Blair continued. "Close your eyes. Take a couple of deep breaths. Focus on a memory that represents _you._ Not your history, not where you wish things were. Your relationship to each other right now."

Matt and Foggy both thought of the same moment: hanging Karen's "Nelson and Murdock" sign outside of their building while she read from the cover that mentioned the Daredevil for the first time. The experience was so absorbing and so viscerally clear that it seemed to tug at both of their souls...

Beckett gently squeezed Blair's shoulder...the wordless sign that meant she felt an increase in the energy between the two men. "Do you feel it, guys?" Blair asked Matt and Foggy. "Like someone yanking at your brain?" The two men nodded. "That's your connection. Picture it like the entrance to a waterslide."

A second squeeze of Blair's shoulder forced Blair to breathe deeply, forcing himself to keep his heart from racing at a speed that would distract the newly minted Sentinel-Guide team. "Matt, when I tell you guys to go down the slide, I want you to shut down all of your other senses. Focus only on the feeling of that connection. Do you understand me?" Matt nodded. "Then you're ready. Go."

Beckett's pat on his back sent Blair's heart racing out of control. _Connection established,_ he thought. _Castle was right._ "Okay, Foggy," he told his fellow Guide, "open your eyes."

Foggy opened his eyes...and Matt gasped, suddenly finding himself on unsteady legs. The Sentinel collapsed, speechless, on a nearby pile of wooden pallets.

"Keep your eyes closed, Matt!" Blair warned. "Whatever you do, don't open them!" Matt nodded.

Seeing his best friend in distress sent Foggy rushing to his best friend's side. _What is it, Matt?_

 _I'm seeing...myself, I think,_ Matt thought. _If that's me, then I really need a haircut..._

 _Only you would think that with your hair a quarter inch longer than usual..._ Foggy teased.

The two men chuckled...and the sound painfully shattered the connection between them. Both men scrambled back, holding their heads in their hands as their minds struggled to re-establish a grasp on 'normal'. "What the hell just happened?!" Foggy demanded.

"First things first," Beckett announced. "You two look like you're in a lot of pain, am I right?" Both Matt and Foggy nodded. "Then we can talk about this now, or we can talk about this _after_ you've seen Lanie. Your call."

Foggy opened his mouth to speak, but Matt cut him off before he got the chance. "Lanie," he insisted. "Definitely Lanie first."

When Foggy turned to his friend, Matt gave him an expression that begged for his trust. So Foggy nodded, deferring to his friend. "Okay, let's go see whoever this Lanie person is..."

They were gone a second later.


	8. Chapter 8

"I want to marry that woman," Foggy sighed.

Matt chuckled at the comment...which, apparently, was echoing the laughter he heard coming from Lanie on the other side of the lab. "i think she's already married, Foggy."

"Damn it!" Foggy cursed in frustration. "Why are all the good ones taken..."

Beckett shared in the amusement of the moment. "You two sound like you're feeling better."

Foggy nodded in agreement...which sent his memory back to why they had gone to the healer in the first place. "So now that we're not having to listen to the explanation through nasty migraines, talk. What happened to us back there?"

"The connection between a Sentinel and his Guide is one of the strongest bonds in the universe," Blair explained. "That test was designed specifically to see if you two have that bond."

"I guess we do," agreed Matt.

Blair nodded. "That bond was what you guys were feeling tugging at your brains...but when you laughed, it broke the connection. As a result, you got a nasty case of spiritual whiplash from snapping back into your own heads unexpectedly..."

"Hold it," Foggy broke in, shaking his head in disbelief, "Matt was _in my head?!"_

"That's why he was able to see," Blair agreed, nodding. "He was looking through your eyes."

Foggy gawked at Matt in amazement...while Matt was trying to recall every second of the experience. "That makes so much sense _,"_ he declared, thinking out loud.

"That makes _sense_ to you?!" countered Foggy.

Matt nodded. "I was trying to figure out why I could see, but my hearing and sense of smell were nothing like they are normally. If I was using all of _your_ senses, though, that would make sense."

The weight of what had happened in the context of his best friend's disability finally broke through to Foggy. "Wait a minute...you were _seeing?_ Like, you had your eyes back again seeing?"

Matt smiled, glad to see that his friend had finally caught on. "Yeah, Foggy. For the minute or so that we were connected, I could see. My senses were all back to normal. Apparently, because they were yours." Matt then turned back to Blair. "There's just one thing I'm still not sure about, though. You said that when we laughed, we got distracted enough that it broke the connection."

"That's correct," said Blair.

"But we were talking just before that..." Matt insisted...until three heads around him were shaking 'no'. "We weren't talking?"

"Basic telepathy is a side effect of the link," Jim, to Blair's surprise, explained. "You weren't talking to each other. You were _thinking_ to each other."

For Foggy, that last revelation was the straw that broke the camel's back. "Excuse me," he muttered as he staggered out of the lab. "I...I just need a minute..."

Blair started to go after Foggy, but Jim held him back, allowing Matt to be the one to run after his friend. "Let this one go, chief," Jim warned. "Sometimes things like this are best left to Sentinels and _their_ Guides."

Memories of a hundred such conversations flooded Blair's mind as he reluctantly agreed.

#

Matt caught up to Foggy in what looked to be a dark, empty warehouse. Foggy was resting against a pillar, the light from the open doorway shining on him like a beacon and providing the only light in the room. "The Twilight Zone is a scary place," Matt announced, his voice echoing in the large space. "I thought you knew that."

"Thank you, Rod Serling," Foggy deadpanned.

Matt chuckled as he joined Foggy, sitting next to his friend so that both men could see. "You all right?" he asked, even though his senses already told him much of the answer to that question.

Foggy closed his eyes, leaned his head back against the pillar and sighed. "I thought we were coming here for _you,"_ he told Matt. "This is just..."

"I know," Matt agreed. The two sat in companionable silence for a while. "For what it's worth," Matt finally admitted, "that minute was one of the best moments of my life since my dad died."

"Really?" asked Foggy, the word heavy with hope and the need for reassurance.

Matt nodded. "When someone tells you you can't have something..."

"It becomes the one thing you want more than anything else," Foggy agreed, immediately understanding where his part...Sentinel was headed.

Matt nodded again. "When something like going blind happens to you, that feeling never goes away. Even after the doctors told me that the damage was 'permanent', after all the trauma counseling...hell, even after Stick tried to beat the desire out of me...it was always there, in the back of my mind. I wanted to see again. To feel _normal,_ even if it was only for a couple of minutes. So as incredibly weird as the circumstances were..."

"You still got your wish," said Foggy.

"Yeah," said Matt. "Look, what happened out there scared me, too, okay? But..." He shuddered involuntarily as the memory of the Black Sky pushed itself back to the front of his mind. "You didn't see that kid, Foggy. You didn't _feel_ what I _felt_ in that kid's presence. I can't take him out on my own. And if Madame Gao really has control of that thing..."

Foggy sighed as Matt's words sunk in. "You think...you think _I'm_ the one to help you with that?"

"I have no idea," Matt admitted. "But look what happened the first time we put your 'Guide' skills to the test. If _that_ 's step one of what we could potentially do as a team, then I want to see what else we can do."

Foggy sighed again, his energy building as his confidence grew. "Okay," he declared. "Then I guess I'm in, too." Foggy's hands started getting fidgety as he wished, more than anything, to be having this conversation in a bar. Over a couple of beers. "You know...if I had to go through this with anybody, I'm glad it's you."

"Same," Matt agreed.

Foggy stood up and pulled Matt up...then slowly walked around the pillar, taking in the starkness of his surroundings. "I wonder if it goes the other way," he mused.

"If what goes the other way?" asked Matt, not sure if _he_ wanted to know the answer to that question.

"This...connection between us," Foggy replied. "Do you think maybe it might go the other way? Could...could I get to look through _your_ eyes?"

"We can try," Matt replied. "If you're up for it."

Foggy's face lit up with an inspired smile. "I'm the one who brought it up, aren't I?"

"Okay," Matt agreed. "Sit back down and close your eyes."

The two men sat indian-style in the column of light coming from the doorway, their bodies facing each other and their eyes tightly closed. "You remember how to do this..." asked Matt.

"It's burned into my brain," Foggy insisted, cutting Matt off. "Shut up."

Matt had to stop himself from chuckling, biting his lip as the tug of the link beckoned to him. He gave in, opening his mind to the sensations and finding that the feelings weren't as awkward as they had been the first time. _You there, Foggy?_ he thought.

 _Yeah, I'm here,_ Foggy replied.

 _It's less weird this time, right?_ asked Matt.

Foggy had to resist the urge to shake his head. _Nope. Still pretty weird._

 _Well it's gonna get weirder in a second,_ Matt warned Foggy. _I'm going to open my eyes. Remember, *don't* open yours!_

The two men clearly felt Foggy's discomfort at the idea. _Believe me,_ thought Foggy, _that is *not* an experience I care to repeat._

 _Then you're ready?_ asked Matt.

 _Let's do this,_ Foggy declared.

Foggy gasped as Matt opened his eyes. _Whoa..._ he exclaimed. _*This* is what you see day in, day out, every day?_

 _Yep,_ thought Matt. _It's a little more crazy than a big, empty room, but yeah. This...is how I see the world. Most of the time._

Foggy felt himself gawking at the wisps of light and 'smoke' that refracted off of every line as Matt's heightened senses turned darkness into almost-dusk. _I just thought your sight was blurry, but this...it's like looking through infrared goggles,_ thought Foggy. _Kinda._

 _I wouldn't know,_ Matt thought with a mental chuckle. _Ready?_

 _Yeah,_ Foggy agreed. _On three._

Once Matt closed his eyes, two minds thought as one. _One...two...three..._

The two men were smiling when they opened their eyes. "We did it," Foggy declared.

"Still think you can't handle life in the Twilight Zone?" asked Matt.

"Yes," Foggy insisted. "But I'm working on it."

"Glad to hear it." Matt and Foggy turned to find Blair standing in the doorway, blocking the light. "How're you doing?" asked Blair.

Matt helped Foggy back to a standing position. "Better," Foggy replied. "Thanks."

"Good," said Blair. "Then let's get moving. We've got a lot of work to do."

#


	9. Chapter 9

The two men jogged out of the warehouse space...only to discover Ryan, Esposito and Beckett standing behind Blair, chasing them

 _back_

into the space before turning the lights on. "Your turn, Matt," Beckett instructed them. "This is as good a place as any to begin your training."

"Okay," said Matt. "What do you want me to do?"

Ryan and Esposito surrounded the young Sentinel. "While you live in the spirit realm," Esposito explained, "you stubbornly refuse to believe that that's what it is."

"Matt? Stubborn?" joked Foggy. "No way."

Ryan, Matt and Esposito all ignored the comment. "Matt, you think that because you can combine hearing, taste, smell and touch into a sensory net that that net is enough to deal with anything that comes at you."

"It isn't?" asked Foggy, impressed solely by the description of what his friend was capable of.

"Not this time," Ryan replied, his voice heavy with the weight of experience. "Not against the fog."

Matt's hands twitched as he used his 'trusty' net to track Ryan and Esposito's movements, waiting for either man to make a move...

Foggy noticed Matt jump. "What is it?" he asked his friend.

"They're gone," said Matt. "They just...disappeared."

Foggy shook his head. "You're wrong, Matt. They haven't moved since you guys started."

"Open your 'sight', Matt," Beckett instructed. "See for yourself."

Matt gasped when he opened his eyes and saw the auras that surrounded him. "How...?" he exclaimed.

"That net of yours is a crutch," Esposito declared. "When you were a kid, Stick got you so convinced that sight was a distraction that you learned to trust every sense _except_ for your sight. Now that we know what your 'sight' consists of, that's a habit you need to break. Now."

Beckett sat down next to Foggy, watching as Ryan and Esposito started to close in on Matt. Foggy, for his part, was surprised to see the Guardian sitting out the sparring session. "You're not jumping in on this?" asked Foggy.

"It's already three against one," Beckett replied.

"Three?" asked Foggy, confused by the number. Beckett nudged Foggy's attention to the petite, attractive, dark-haired woman in the corner of the room. Foggy opened his mouth to ask about the woman...then was stunned into silence when that woman moved faster than anything he had ever seen before. 'What the hell is that?!" Foggy gasped.

"'That' is Katya," Beckett replied.

Foggy started to study Katya, surprised by the instinctive feeling of dread that washed over him. "What is she?"

"A vampire," Beckett replied with a casual shrug. "But don't worry, she only bites her husband."

Foggy's mouth dropped open as he tried to process Beckett's comment...and failed miserably. "She's _married_?!"

Beckett nodded. "To my boss."

"Is...is your boss a vampire, too?" Foggy asked nervously.

"Nope," Beckett replied. She could practically feel the waves of dread coming off the young Guide. "Look, I can tell what you're thinking. But Katya's a friend. And she's here to help."

The idea of a helpful vampire was completely lost on Foggy. "How?!"

"Think about it," said Beckett, trying to phrase her answer in a way that would keep Foggy focused on the needs of his Sentinel. "Matt needs to get past using only his physical senses. His hearing in particular. Did you know he distinguishes people mostly by their heartbeats?"

"No," Foggy admitted. "I didn't know that."

"The Black Sky doesn't have a heartbeat. Or a voice. Or a _soul._ It looks human so it can blend in and fool the rest of us, but if Matt uses the tricks he uses against normal humans..."

Foggy was starting to understand Beckett's point. "He'll get his ass kicked."

"He'd be lucky if that's all that happened to him," Beckett countered. "But that's where Katya comes in. What better way to learn to fight a non-human being than to fight a non-human being?"

"So...she's _not_ going to hurt Matt?"

"Nothing that Lanie can't heal," Beckett replied with a sly smile.

While Foggy understood Beckett's logic, the nervous knot in his stomach told Foggy how much trouble he was having 'rolling with it'. "I don't know if I'll ever get used to this," he admitted.

"It takes time," Beckett agreed. "But it gets easier. I promise."

As Foggy watched his friend slowly gain the upper hand against the two Guardians, he started to realize just how little he actually _knew_ about the Guardians. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Anything," Beckett replied.

"I know your husband's a wizard," said Foggy, "but what's _your_ ability?"

Beckett smiled. "Hypersenses. Like Jim."

Foggy frowned in confusion, trying to process the detail Beckett added into the comparison. "Like Jim, but not like Matt?"

"The spirit plane's the big difference between us. Jim can barely see it at all. I can read big auras, but I have to really concentrate to see anything else. But the spirit plane is how Matt _sees."_

"Really?" Foggy asked, amazed by the idea. "Wow." He sat for a moment, trying to resolve what Beckett had just told him with what he had seen when he was looking through Matt's eyes. A new question stood out. "So is Blair your Guide, too?"

Beckett shook her head. "Don't need one."

"You don't?" asked Foggy.

"Technically, no," replied Beckett.

Foggy realized he was probably going to start dreaming about a day when he didn't feel totally lost. "Define 'technically'."

Beckett pointed to the blond-haired Guardian. "Ryan's ability is telepathy. You know how you and Matt can read each other's thoughts when that link kicks in?" When Foggy nodded, Beckett continued, "we communicate like that all the time. Blair's theory is that since I'm so used to having other people share the space in my head, it tempers my focus enough that I don't need a Guide."

"Why would you need to 'temper your focus'?"

"Did you ever concentrate so intently on something you were reading that you didn't hear someone talking to you?" asked Beckett.

Foggy nodded. "All the time."

Beckett nudged their attention back to Matt. "Imagine what could happen to someone like _Matt._ If a Sentinel narrows their focus too much on one particular sense they can forget to breathe. It could kill them."

Foggy's eyes went wide as he considered the implications of what Beckett was telling him. "Ever since I found out about Matt's abilities, I've noticed how distracted he gets when he's focused on his hearing, but I had no idea..."

"Your friend's not the only one with a crucial role to play here, Foggy," Beckett declared.

"Yeah," Foggy agreed weakly, "I'm starting to get that."

The conversation between the Guide and the Guardian ended when Ryan and Esposito stepped away from the sparring session with Matt. "Is that it?" Matt asked, calling out to the two men between ragged gasps for air. "We done?"

"Not yet," Katya declared.

Matt wheeled around where he stood, the 'disembodied' voice shaking him to his core. "Who are you?" he asked.

"I am Ekaterina Fallon," Katya replied, circling the room to continuously shift Matt's attention.

Matt first opened up his hearing, then his sense of touch...and was shocked by what he found. Or rather, what he _didn't_ find. "I can't hear your heart beating," he told her, assuming that someone exhibiting such predatory behavior already knew his 'secret'.

"You cannot hear what is not there," declared Katya.

Matt's eyebrows flew up with shock at Katya's statement. "You don't have a heartbeat?"

"Not one that you can detect on your own," Katya replied.

"What are you?" Matt gasped.

"I am vampyr," said Katya. "And a friend to the Guardians. I am here as the next level to your training."

Those may have been the last words Matt expected to hear. "You're here to train me?"

A wind with the power of a truck barreled through Matt, knocking him on his back. Once he got his breath back, he recognized what had just hit him. Or rather, who. "Open your Sight, Sentinel. Find me."

Foggy felt the tug on his mind, and closed his eyes, losing himself in the bond with his Sentinel. Never losing focus on their shared goal, he double-checked Matt's gaze, looking for anything that felt out of place...and then he heard it. It only happened once, but its identity was unmistakeable. A heartbeat. _Lower left corner,_ he 'told' Matt. _Heading east._

 _Thanks,_ thought Matt. He took Foggy's advice, sprinting toward the slight distortion in his field of vision...and making contact with Katya's foot as she leapt over his head.

Foggy severed the connection with his partner, smiling as he watched the determined Sentinel start to get a lock on his new adversary. "C'mon, buddy," he whispered under his breath, "you can take her."

It took a lot less time than Foggy would have thought. The fight was a brutal one: Matt took a lot more punches than he gave out as he studied Katya's combat patterns, but in a matter of minutes, he had the vampyr on her back with one well-placed, unanticipated clothesline to the neck. But even though Matt knew that Katya had the strength to get out of his chokehold and probably break his fingers in the process, she never moved, allowing him to take the win. "While your fighting style is...crude, to say the least," Katya declared, "you have made great strides. See Lanie. Tend to your wounds. You are ready."


	10. Chapter 10

The stars were twinkling in the night sky when Matt and Foggy made it up to the roof of the warehouse. Foggy drew in deep breath after deep breath, relishing the cool crispness of the fresh air after having spent all afternoon in the warehouse. "Beautiful night," he said.

"I can't really tell," Matt admitted.

Foggy tried to picture what the night would look like through the lens of Matt's 'world on fire'. It didn't take him long to realize exactly how much would get lost in the translation. "Wanna see for yourself?" he offered.

"Rain check," Matt suggested. "I would love to, but I can't afford the distraction if we're going to search the city for that...thing. After this is over, though...?"

Foggy nodded. "Sure," he agreed readily. Not for the first time that day, the oddness of his best friend's appearance struck Foggy as representative of how that day had changed his perspective on their friendship. "You know," he admitted, "I'm still having trouble getting used to seeing you without your cane..."

"It's a pretense," Matt said with a shrug. "You know I don't need it. Same with the glasses."

"Yeah, I know," Foggy agreed. "It's just..." An odd thought crossed Foggy's mind. "Could you drive?"

Matt couldn't resist. "Why?" he teased. "I have you."

Foggy glared at his friend. "Seriously! If you just opened up your senses could you, like, drive a car if you wanted?"

"Probably," Matt admitted.

Foggy shook his head in amazement. "I can't even picture that," he insisted. "And I've seen what you see. It's just so..."

"Weird?" asked Matt. Foggy nodded. "Kinda like the idea of being in my head and seeing through my eyes?"

It was clear that Matt had a point. "Am I ever going to get used to this?" Foggy exclaimed with a groan.

"Focus on what's happening moment to moment," Matt replied, trying to be as reassuring as he could be. "Adapting to anything gets easier over time. Take it from an expert on the subject."

Foggy smiled when he realized how true Matt's statement probably was...until one of the goals of the current 'moment' jumped to the front of his mind. "What Katya said down there. Was she right? _Are_ you ready?"

"No," Matt replied, clearly nervous. "But the longer we leave a weapon like the Black Sky in Madame Gao's hands, the more dangerous she becomes. Whatever is going to happen needs to happen tonight."

Foggy drew in one last deep breath, more to steady his nerves than to appreciate his surroundings. "Okay. Let's do this." With the tug of the bond now a near-constant presence in each man's mind, it was easy for Foggy to close his eyes, follow the sensation, and jump down the rabbit hole.

Matt and Foggy opened Matt's Sight up to the city, scanning block by block in a circle from the warehouse outward. It didn't take long for Matt's frustration to pulse through the mind-link, distracting them both. _This is ridiculous,_ thought Matt. _I'll never find them this way._

 _What was it like when you first saw the kid?_ asked Foggy. _Maybe showing that to me will help._

Matt replayed his memories of the Black Sky and Madame Gao. _You feel it?_ he asked Foggy.

 _Yeah..._ Foggy agreed. He felt a chill run down his spine...then his entire soul quickly became consumed by inspiration and urgency. _But do you feel *that*?_

Matt forced himself to concentrate, racking his brain to try and figure out what detail he had missed that his Guide was now picking up on. _Feel what, Foggy?_

 _It's a...pulling,_ Foggy described. _Like the connection between us._

Matt recognized the sensation the minute Foggy put the feeling into words. _I feel it._..

 _The kid's pure evil, right?_ thought Foggy. _Maybe...maybe he's like an evil black hole that pulls in all the good spirit around him..._

 _It would explain what his aura looks like,_ Matt agreed. He switched their focus from the memory back to the present, focusing on the slightest hint of the sensations they had felt in his memories.

When they got back to Hell's Kitchen, they started to feel it. As they moved closer and closer, the attraction was unmistakeable. Foggy was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. His will urged them closer, block by block, building by building...

Matt cut the connection abruptly, causing Foggy to stagger back from the discomfort of the forced ejection. "Matt, what the hell...?" Foggy demanded.

"We found him," Matt explained. "But he was sucking you in. I don't know how, but if I hadn't cut the connection I think he might have sucked you out of my head. Or sucked us both into oblivion. You don't remember?"

Foggy shook off the disorientation as the memory came back to him. "Yeah. I remember," he said. "What now?"

"We show the Guardians what we saw," Matt declared. "From here, it's their show."

Foggy watched Matt climb down the fire escape before his friend's choice of words hit him. "Hold it, how are you going to _show_ them what we saw?"

#

Madame Gao had never moved out of the Kitchen. A mere ten blocks south of the first place she had set up shop in the United States, and just three blocks west of the second, the warehouse was bustling with life even as the rest of the neighborhood had gone dark for the night. A people's army of the blind worked at two dozen tables, getting the pure heroin known as "Steel Serpent" ready for distribution. And for every worker, it seemed that there was now at least one guard watching over them, submachine gun ready to go after whatever...or whoever...was looking to get in their way.

One "whoever", in particular, was especially troubling to the old woman. Not the 'Daredevil': even with all of his skills, Gao knew that the 'Daredevil' was only one man and one man, no matter how talented, was not going to dismantle her army a second time. No...the one who was troubling Gao was Daredevil's new ally. The one who caused the warrior to disappear into thin air. Even before the 'vanishing act', the mysterious woman reeked of magick. Powerful magicks that, to that point, Gao had been certain that this world did not have.

Not for the first time, Gao found herself grateful for Nobu's legends about the 'Black Sky'. The Black Sky was a powerful being, and a valuable weapon in her arsenal. She knew how fortunate she was to have it. With money in the bank, an army at her disposal and the Black Sky at her side, that gave Gao all of the money, power and influence that she needed to take over this pathetic little world and milk it for everything it was worth.

And nothing, and no one, was powerful enough to stop her.

#

"It's like some damn heroin mall..." Beckett exclaimed. The Hunter was piggybacking her sight onto her hearing and providing reconnaissance for the group from the roof of the apartment building that they were using as a scouting perch.

"How many tables?" asked Matt.

Beckett took a quick census of what she was seeing. "Two dozen, give or take. Double what I saw when we met."

"And quadruple her first operation," Matt agreed. "She's ramping up for something."

"Which means we gotta move on her as soon as possible," declared Esposito.

On that point, everyone was in full agreement. "Matt, you take point on finding the kid," said Beckett. "With your Sight, you're our best shot at it."

Matt nodded. "Whad'ya say, Foggy? Ready to be my second pair of eyes?"

Foggy nodded, although his nerves were clearly obvious to everyone in the group. "I'm staying up here, right?"

"How are you at running with your eyes closed?" asked Matt.

"Terrible," Foggy replied.

"Then you're staying up here," Matt declared.

Foggy looked relieved. "Thank you."

Castle then cast a shielding spell...which caused Matt to stagger back, disoriented. "What the hell is that?" the Sentinel demanded.

"Energy shield," Castle replied. "Full-on bulletproofing..."

"Take it off," Matt insisted. "I can't see through it."

The request worried everyone in the group...but Foggy most of all. "Are you sure?" he asked his friend. "There's almost a hundred guards in there..."

"I'm sure," Matt replied. "You want my Sight so I can look for the kid. I can't do it with that shield on me."

"All right," Beckett relented. "But stay behind us, then. Let us take most of the firefight." Matt nodded.

Foggy, for his part, had no interest in letting Matt go that easy. "Can I just file a formal protest against you going in there without..."

"Noted," Matt cut him off. "And overruled." Foggy sighed in frustration.

Castle tilted his head, his attention focused elsewhere. "There's somthing else down there. Not just the kid, something else. Powerful. And magical."

Ryan's eyes widened. "There's magic down there?"

"The nose never lies," Castle replied, tapping the side of his nostril.

Beckett rolled her eyes at the comment. "All right, then. Castle, whatever magic's down there is your show. Just make sure you call for me when you need me, right?"

"Got it," Castle agreed.

"Why would Castle need you in a magic fight?" asked Foggy.

"Wizards can't use their powers to kill," Ryan explained. "Ever. If something needs to be killed one of us has to do it."

Foggy swallowed nervously, suddenly uncomfortable around the company he was keeping. "How many times have you...?"

"Fewer than you'd think," Esposito replied. "And most of them weren't human. Not even anywhere _close_ to human." Foggy sighed with relief for a second time.

"Remember," Castle warned, "the shields are designed for bullets. They don't do a _thing_ against the fog. If you find the kid, you call me immediately. Understood?" Everyone in the group nodded.

"Then let's go," declared Esposito. "Good luck, everyone."

#


	11. Chapter 11

Foggy couldn't believe what he was seeing.

It wasn't that he was in his Sentinel's head; that was something he was growing increasingly comfortable doing. It wasn't the odd perspective from which he was seeing everything that he was seeing; that, he simply knew, was just the way that Matt saw the world. No, the thing that was most amazing him...the thing that was shocking him, even though he knew he shouldn't really be surprised by it...was how badass his best friend truly was. Seeing Matt fight, hitting and being hit, ignoring the bullets that were flying all around even though, unlike the Guardians, Matt _wasn't_ being protected from the possibility of the next second being his last. Seeing all that, through Matt's eyes, feeling it as he was feeling it...it was overwhelming him. _Focus, Foggy,_ he thought, hoping he was keeping the thoughts to himself, _Matt needs your help._ Foggy kept the rest of his thoughts quiet, processing Matt's senses in the hopes of getting that one all-important piece of information: the location of the Black Sky.

Matt stopped, letting the Guardians go ahead and take out more of the creeps with automatic weapons. It created an artificial break in the action that allowed him to focus on more important things. _Got anything?_ he asked Foggy.

 _No,_ Foggy replied with a weary sigh. _You're so close I feel that damn kid everywhere._

 _Keep filtering, Foggy,_ Matt encouraged his Guide, _sometimes the smallest details mean the most..._

 _Yeah, yeah,_ Foggy groaned, only half-teasing. His attention hung on a new sensation, and he focused on it, reaching out to see if he could dip a mental toe in the water before they fell down the rabbit hole. _First floor,_ he told Matt, _back of the building._

Matt took off, jumping down three floors and rolling into his landing before sprinting toward danger once more. _Thanks, Foggy._

 _Be careful,_ Foggy warned Matt. _I don't even want to think of the headache I'd get if you got yourself killed with me in here..._

#

Castle appeared in the basement of the building, working his way through the lower levels, inch by delicate inch. His fingers started to twitch as he opened his senses, taking everything that he had learned from his wife to filter out the difference between the dark elementals of the black fog and the familiar energies of the magic he was so used to feeling. _C'mon,_ he thought, _where the hell are you..._

It didn't take the wizard long to find what he was looking for. An old Asian woman turned the corner, flanked by a squadron of tough-looking thugs carrying automatic weapons. The thugs instantly fired on Castle...only to have their bullets deflected into the nearby cinder block walls. "You're in the wrong room, boys," Castle declared, causing the half-dozen men to disappear with a wave of his hand.

The old woman smiled. "Finally, a truly worthy adversary."

"Madame Gao, I presume?" asked Castle.

"So I am called here," Gao replied cryptically.

Castle raised a curious eyebrow. "That is not your real name?"

Gao nodded. "My true name, I think, is best left unspoken."

Castle then nodded, taking note of the comment and filing it as part of his study of his opponent's strengths and weaknesses. "Very well, then." He created an energy ball and bounced it in his hand, hoping against hope that Gao would be intimidated by the gesture. "Shall we begin?"

Gao, in turn, separated the two pieces of her cane. She took the top piece in her hand and threw away the bottom. Testing the weight of the wand in her hand, she smiled, apparently finding the device to be adequate for her needs. "As your people say," Gao declared, "may the best man win."

#

Dropping three floors in one jump had one singular disadvantage: Matt had gotten ahead of the three Guardian warriors, who were still clearing out guards two floors above him. Determined to get where he needed to go, Matt disappeared into the shadows, picking off every guard he could get from the darkness, then going after those who were distracted by the suffering of their fellow thugs above their heads. Six more guards appeared out of thin air, confused and obviously disoriented by the sudden change in their environment. Matt had them on the ground before they were able to get adjusted to their surroundings.

Disoriented by the instant fight, Matt accidenally ran into the middle of the main room and into a crowded sweatshop full of heroin and blind workers. _My God,_ thought Foggy, _who are all these people?_

 _Gao's heroin processors,_ Matt replied. _Apparently they blind themselves as a sign of devotion to that old woman's idea of a 'better tomorrow'._

 _Man,_ thought Foggy, _that is one crazy old sociopathic bitch._

Matt allowed himself one small smile...but when he started to shuffle across the edge of the floor, it caught the attention of the cluster of workers closest to him. They started calling out to their friends, who stood up in waves and, turning towards the sounds of fighting, began to attack Matt as one giant mob.

One man against three or four, Matt could handle easily. He knew he could take on five or six, even ten on a good day. But a hundred people, even brainwashed and blind, rushing at Daredevil, was more than he could handle. Of that much, Matt was absolutely certain. _I need a way out of here, Foggy!_ Matt cried out as one last act of desperation.

Unable to find any other way to help his Sentinel, Foggy dropped the mental wall he had erected to allow himself to focus on his partner's senses. _Ryan,_ he thought, _Matt's in trouble. First floor._

 _We're on our way,_ Ryan replied.

#

Castle was starting to get frustrated. While Madame Gao didn't have anywhere near his level of raw power, she seemed to be able to anticipate his every move. He threw an energy ball, shattering the pallets that the old woman was using for cover. Gao didn't seem at all thrown by the destruction of her cover; she simply rolled over to another section of pallets and pinned Castle down with a volley of explosively intense lightning bolts. "How old are you, woman?" he grunted.

Gao smiled from behind the pallets, her hands erupting in flames. "You have fought well," Gao called out to Castle.

Castle cast another energy ball. "I'm not done yet," he insisted, using a shield to deflect a fireball into a pile of storage crates, causing them to explode.

"Yes," Gao declared. "You are." She closed her eyes, calling for her piece of the Black Sky to come to her aid and...

Nothing happened.

Gao frowned at the ineffectiveness of her spell. "That cannot be..." She repeated the spell.

Still, nothing happened.

Castle couldn't resist. "Hmm..." he teased, "Maybe he's busy. Did he tell you to leave a message after the beep?"

#

Ryan, Beckett and Esposito scanned the room, looking for any sign of the Sentinel. Beckett was the one to finally spot where Matt was being trampled by a mob of Gao's workers. "Over there," she declared, "I can see his boots."

The brawl felt endless as the three Guardians pushed their way through the crowds, throwing people on top of each other in their determination to get to their ally. Gao's workers were thrashing around in a rage: punching, kicking and grabbing at anyone who came into physical contact with them.

When the Guardians finally got to Matt, he was curled up into a ball, desperately trying to keep himself protected from the overwhelming onslaught. Only when he saw the telltale glow of the Guardians' auras did Matt finally relax, pulling himself out of the ball as Beckett helped him stand. "Thanks, guys."

"Where is he?" asked Ryan, all business. Matt tilted his head toward the door behind them. _Castle,_ Ryan projected into the mind-link. _We found him._

The wizard fell into the room, rolling in a continuation of the momentum he had started in the basement. Only when Castle came up out of the roll did he realized where he was. He dropped to a kneeling position and whispered a quick spell. '"That should keep Madame Gao from escaping," Castle announced, "but it won't hold her for long. Behind the door?" Matt nodded. "Open it," Castle ordered.

The door opened to an innocent-looking child of Asian descent, clad in only a loincloth. "He can't be more than eight years old..." said Ryan.

It was then that the Black Sky launched his attack. The child tilted his head up until his chin pointed to the sky. Tendrils of black smoke flew through the room, wrapping around every being it could come into contact with. Matt and the Guardians dropped to their knees as those tendrils started to wrap around their arms, legs...and necks. "Castle!" Beckett called out, gasping for what she was scared might be her body's last breaths of air. "Hurry!"

The attack was one that Castle had been prepared for, and he found himself able to ignore it, choosing instead to focus on gathering the energies he needed to collect from the world around him. "PARASITE!" he called out in a voice that came from his gift and not from his vocal cords. "BE GONE FROM MY SIGHT!"

The room instantly emptied. The child had vanished, along with the tables, the heroin, and all of the workers. Castle helped Beckett up while Ryan pulled Esposito to a standing position. The four Guardians took a moment, gasping for air through crushed windpipes. _Is that it?_ Ryan asked the group through the mind-link. _Is it gone?_

Beckett soon realized who else was still in the room...and who hadn't stood up yet. She went to the clearly suffering Sentinel and bent down on her knees next to his side. "Matt?" she yelled, praying that the man wasn't in a zone-out or some sort of sensory overload. "Matt, what is it? Talk to me!"

Matt was on his knees, gasping for air. He clutched at his throat as if desperately trying to pull an unseen enemy away from his face, his eyes, his neck, his arms...

Beckett looked up to her husband. "He looks like he's fighting the Black Sky," she insisted. "Is it..."

Castle shook his head. "No, the darkness isn't there. I can barely feel it."

Esposito bent down next to Matt, touching his other shoulder...and immediately recoiling at what he saw. "We gotta get outta here, Castle," he declared. "The kid's gone after Foggy."

The group disappeared a second later.

#

Foggy was on his feet, his eyes still closed but his expression wild and desperate. He was watching his Sentinel die, he was certain of that. Worse, he also knew that there was nothing he could do to stop it. Foggy clutched at his neck in a panic, instinctively clawing and swatting at the tendrils of the Black Sky, hoping against all hope that his movements would do what Matt's couldn't, and save his life...

The connection died, and Foggy collapsed on the ground, vomiting from the pain and wailing from the grief that was threatening to consume his very soul. It wasn't just losing his best friend. It wasn't even like he had lost a brother or another member of his family. Foggy had lost a part of his soul. A piece of himself had just been ripped out of his body and violently murdered. He didn't just want to grieve. He wanted to end the suffering that felt like it was going to continue the rest of his days.

He wanted to die.

Out of the corner of Foggy's eye, he saw a pair of small, bare feet. He turned his head and looked up to find a small Asian child staring at him with a curious expression. And it was then that Foggy knew. He knew it as well as he knew the grief that was threateening to consume him.

This was the being that had killed Matt.

"You evil son of a bitch," Foggy growled. "If you were going to kill me, why not just do it.? Hell, why not just do it now? But why'd you have to do it? Huh? Why'd you have to kill...him...first..."

Foggy charged the Black Sky, but before he could get five feet the being opened his mouth and attacked. The Guide instantly felt the pain that he had felt his Sentinel endure, and he fell to his knees, this time clutching at real tentrils of smoke that were wrapping around his torso, his arms, his neck, and his head...

He was getting his wish.

He was dying.

Foggy closed his eyes, letting the darkness wash over him and take him away to the sweetness of oblivion. A pinprick of light pierced through the darkness. _Whadya know,_ Foggy thought with a mental chuckle. _There actually is a light..._ He felt himself being pulled toward the light, joy bubbling up in his soul as the light grew closer, and closer and closer...

It wasn't Heaven that Foggy found when he made it into the light. It wasn't Limbo, or Paradise, or the hereafter, or any other version of the afterlife that religions have named in the hopes of having a goal for the life after death. On the contrary...when Franklin "Foggy" Nelson reached the light, he was reaching into himself. Into the very core of his being. The light and the heart and the purity and the passion and the compassion...

Foggy Nelson hadn't made it to heaven.

Foggy Nelson had found his soul.

He took that light and pulled it to him, cradling it like a mother holding her most precious newborn in her arms for the first time. The light grew as a child grows, pushing away the darkness with a strength that the darkness, for all of eternity, has never found a way to overcome. Foggy gloried in that light, drinking it in like an alcoholic finding his way to the bottom of a tequila bottle.

And finally, when Foggy Nelson felt like he couldn't consume another drop of the power that was the essence of the universe around him, that universe exploded in a blinding flash of light.

#


	12. Chapter 12

Foggy woke up to a much more gentle light...and a *massive* headache.

 _Man,_

he thought,

 _I gotta quit drinking..._

He blinked and shook his head, trying to get the sleep out of his eyes before just giving in and using his finger to roll the debris out of the corner of his eye. The covers surrounding him on the bed didn't feel familiar. Foggy panicked, instantly wondering if he had hooked up with a girl and had just been too drunk to remember...

...until he saw Matt curled up in a nearby armchair, fast asleep himself.

Foggy's memories came back to him in a rush...but none of them made sense. Matt suspected that their client was being framed for murdering her husband by the Chinese triads...and possibly her husband. _Jennifer was supposed to be getting treated at the sleep clinic at St. Vincent's, wasn't she?_ thought Foggy. _So where are we? Are we *there*, for some reason...wait, why would I be in a sleep clinic..._ He checked under the sheets, confirming his suspicions about his lack of clothing. _In my boxers and not hooked up to anything?_

Matt shifted in the chair, slowly waking up himself. _Probably heard the change in my heartbeat, or something..._ thought Foggy. A few more vague memories returned, something about the Guardians and being Matt's guide dog..."Hey," Foggy called over to his friend when he suspected that Matt was a little closer to fully awake, "guess I flunked out of sidekick training, huh?"

"What makes you say that, Foggy?" asked Matt.

Foggy tried to connect his disjointed memories into a coherent story. "I just figured the Guardians kicked us out and we went drinking or something..."

Matt frowned at his friend, clearly confused by his friend's comments. "We're still at the Guardians' headquarters, Foggy."

"We are?"

Matt nodded. "This is their version of a private hospital room."

Foggy's eyes went wide. _Hospital room?! What kind of trouble did I get into that I could possibly need a hospital room...wait..._ "Why didn't Lanie heal me?" He swallowed down the nervous lump that was starting to form in his throat. "Or _did_ she?"

"She said she couldn't," Matt replied, shaking his head. "something about not wanting to mess with the cocoon..."

"Cocoon?" asked Foggy, now confused himself.

Matt tapped the side of his head. "It'll be easier to explain if you see what I'm seeing."

 _Okay..._ thought Foggy, casually jumping into his Sentinel's mind like he was changing the channel on a television. _Is that...is that *me*?_ asked Foggy, his voice showing his amazement with the image. _Is that how you see me?_

 _It is now,_ Matt replied.

Foggy's thoughts hung on Matt's last word. _Now?_

 _That glow you're seeing?_ thought Matt. _It's an aura. It's really rare. I don't see it from everybody._

Foggy realized that that nervous lump in his throat was starting to take root in his stomach. _You don't?_

 _No,_ Matt replied. _Foggy...every time I've seen this aura, the person who had it had...powers._

 _And those powers aren't connected to...all this?_ asked Foggy.

 _No,_ thought Matt, _although it might be making this easier._

Foggy chuckled nervously. _Yeah, I feel it too._

Matt seemed to be in no mood to laugh. _Foggy, most of the people who have this aura are Guardians._

Foggy's eyes went wide. He severed the connection, desperately needing to be alone with his own thoughts. "You...you mean...are you trying to tell me I have _superpowers?!_ " he demanded, his harsh whisper showing how little Foggy wanted to hear what he was saying.

Matt shrugged. "I don't know, Foggy. How are you feeling?"

Foggy was starting to feel like the walls of the small room were closing in on him. "I...I need some air," he gasped. Foggy flung the covers off of the bed, stood up to get ready to run out of the room...

...and the door opened by itself, stopping Foggy in his tracks. "Is...it that door supposed to do that?"

Matt was staring at the door, his own level of amazement growing by the second. "I don't know..." He ran his hands over the rough plywood door, surprised to feel no current running through it. A thought struck Matt. Barely able to believe even what he was thinking, Matt had to force himself to get the words out. "Foggy...picture the door closing. In your head."

Foggy and Matt both jumped as the door almost closed on Matt's hand. Foggy was in a full-on panic attack. "I think...I think I need to sit down," he gasped out, stunned to near-speechlessness by what he had seen.

Matt, for his part, seemed unable to take his eyes off the door. "I think we just found your superpower, Foggy..."

#

Matt had never been more grateful to find a punching bag.

The one thing that Stick had drilled into him as a child...and tried to beat into him as an adult...was that anyone close to him was going to get hurt. So it was better for them, and for him, if he kept the world at arm's length. And people did get hurt. He had lost friends. Family. People he loved. Because of who he was and what he could do. What he felt he _had_ to do to protect the people he loved...

"How are you enjoying my boyfriend's punching bag?"

Matt jumped at the voice of the person he didn't recognize. "I'm sorry," he apologized, catching his breath as he stepped away from the bag. "I just...I needed a place to think, and when I found this room...

The girl waved off the apology. "It's all right," she said.

"Your boyfriend won't mind?"

"He's in...Nigeria, at the moment, I think," the girl replied. "I don't think he's going to be using it today."

"Thank you," Matt replied gratefully. He turned back to the bag and resumed his routine, assuming the girl would leave him to his workout.

She didn't. The girl wandered into the room, sitting down at a distance that would allow Matt to freely move around the bag if he chose to. "You really know what you're doing," she complimented him.

"My dad was a boxer," Matt explained between punches. "I paid attention."

"Yeah, you move like a boxer," the girl agreed.

"You sound like you know from experience," said Matt.

The girl smiled, her mind obviously elsewhere. "My boyfriend is a big fan of the sport," she replied. "It's his workout of choice when he wants to blow off some steam."

Recognizing that the girl didn't seem to have any interest in going away, Matt stepped away from the bag a second time. It was only then that he noticed the girl's aura. "I thought I had met all the Guardians," he said.

"I'm not a Guardian...technically," the girl replied. "My dad is."

It didn't take long for Matt to do the math and figure out which of the Guardians would be old enough to have a grown daughter. "Castle's your dad?"

The girl nodded. "I'm what we call a 'flip'. Like your Guide."

"So you know who I am," said Matt.

"Blair and I are old friends," The girl admitted with a smile. "He couldn't wait to tell me about the one and only 'blind Sentinel'."

Matt chuckled. "And here I thought 'Devil of Hell's Kitchen' was the worst nickname I could have gotten stuck with." He offered his hand to the girl. "Matt Murdock," he introduced himself.

"Alexis Castle," Alexis returned in greeting.

Matt turned back to the punching bag and sat down next to Alexis...who conjured up an ice cold bottle of water and handed it to the Sentinel. "Th-thanks," Matt replied, a little dumbstruck by the casual display.

"You're welcome," said Alexis.

"So you're a wizard, too?" asked Matt. "Like your dad?"

Alexis took a sip out of her own water bottle before shaking her head. "Yes, I'm a wizard, but no, not like my dad. A flip has powers, but they're never at the level that a Guardian has. Lanie thinks I have a little more power because of my genetic background, but I'm definitely not the wizard that my dad is."

"Coulda fooled me," Matt countered, amazed that he was having a casual conversation about having differing degrees of superpowers. His mind went back to the label that Alexis had been throwing around. "What's a flip?"

"Our abilities are based in a one-in-a-billion dormant genetic mutation," Alexis explained. "If and when that gene is exposed to massive amounts of energy, it turns on. And whatever powers you were destined to get, you get. We call it a 'flip' because it's kinda like the genetic equivalent of flipping a light switch. One minute you're perfectly normal and the next..."

Matt took a sip of water as he tried to process the explanation. "So that's what happened to Foggy? When he..."

Alexis nodded. It wasn't hard to notice the cloud that fell over Matt's expression. "Wanna talk about it?"

Matt leaned back, resting his body on his hands as he looked up to the ceiling and closed his eyes. "Not really," he sighed.

"Would it help if I told you I almost died before I flipped?" asked Alexis.

That got Matt's attention in a hurry. "You did?"

Alexis nodded again. "We were fighting these giant beasts in Central Park. Long story short I was being protected by a spell that would heal me every time I got injured. When I got mauled, the spell had to heal enough injuries that it created an overabundance of magic energy. That flipped me. And here we are."

"Wow," Matt mouthed before taking another sip of his water. "So is it like that for everyone?"

"There aren't a whole lot of people who've ever flipped," Alexis replied, "but yeah, so far it seems like a near-death experience is usually what kick-starts the process."

Matt turned away from Alexis' gaze. He gave careful thought to Alexis' explanation before he spoke. "When I was a kid, I was trained by this old man called Stick. Blind, like me. Had the whole hypersenses thing, too."

"Was he a Sentinel?" asked Alexis.

Matt chuckling bitterly. "He _hates_ people. With a passion. He even left me when he thought I was getting too close to him-and I was eleven at the time. According to Stick, anyone in my life is only destined to get hurt, so that's why he keeps people as far out of his life as humanly possible."

"So he doesn't have a Guide, then?"

Matt shook his head. "The whole concept would probably piss him off to no end..." his voice trailed off as his thoughts went back to the reason he needed to find a punching bag in the first place. "Maybe he's got a point."

Alexis seemed to take a moment to consider the idea. "Would it help if I told you that unguided Sentinels are usually bat-shit crazy?"

Matt sprayed water out of his mouth in a violent spit-take, inhaling some of the liquid up his nose. "What?!"

Alexis nodded. "That's what Blair's told me, anyway. He met a Sentinel like your friend Stick once. She was a thief. A loner. Fiercely independent." She leaned in in a 'conspiratorial' whisper. "She also tried to kill Blair in an attempt to push Jim off the deep end."

Matt paused as he thought about how closely the description of an unguided Sentinel matched what he had seen from Stick. Then his mind settled on the last part of Alexis' comments. "I don't know..."

Alexis turned to face Matt, then turned him so she could look at the man face-to-face. "Look, being a loner is no way to live. If there's one thing I've learned from this place it's that we _need_ relationships in our lives to become the person we're destined to become. Sentinels and Guides are _the_ greatest examples of this. Sentinels are pretty extraordinary people all on their own. But they're nowhere _near_ as incredible as they can be unless they have a Guide in their life helping them out and watching their backs. In my mind, it's one of the most amazing relationships there is."

"But the risks..." Matt argued weakly.

"Are worth it," Alexis declared. "Blair would tell you the same."

Matt opened his mouth to protest, then closed it when he found out he had no argument left. Save one. "Is Foggy going to be in danger? Because of...all of this?"

"Honestly?" Alexis replied. "He probably is, yeah. But I have a theory of my own about that."

"You do?" asked Matt.

Alexis nodded. "I think that the universe usually balances out a Guide's 'trouble magnet' tendencies by giving them powers of their own. So they can defend themselves."

Matt glared warily at Alexis. "And you're basing this on...?"

"Well, Foggy's the second flipped Guide I've ever met, so..."

Matt nearly choked on the last of his water. "Second?!"

Alexis smiled. "I'm surprised Blair didn't tell you himself. He's a wizard, too."

 **#**

 _ **A/N:**_ _It feels like I talk about flipping a ton, so for those who might be wondering how rare a flip really is...So far, over the course of the series, I've counted eight flips outside of the Guardian tradition (and North Star, where all the flips were temporary): Henry Morgan, Blair Sandburg (although that might be debatable), Bruce Banner, Stephanie, Alexis, Skye (who's more of a Guardian kid (like Ryan's youngest) than an actual flip), Raina, and now Foggy._

 _Eight flips in the entire world sounds pretty rare to me :-) But if I'm forgetting anyone, feel free to remind me in the comments._


	13. Chapter 13

Foggy found Matt in a training room, sitting with a pretty redhead next to a punching bag. "Why am I not surprised?" he declared with a chuckle.

Matt turned back toward the door at the sound of his Guide's voice. "Foggy Nelson," he introduced his friend, "meet Alexis Castle."

"You're the wizard's daughter?" Foggy asked, eyes wide.

"And a wizard in her own right," Matt added. "She flipped a couple of years ago."

"So you're like me?" asked Foggy.

Matt and Alexis looked at each other and chuckled. "More or less," Alexis replied. She got up, deciding that three was a crowd. "I'll leave you two to talk," she told the two men. "It was nice to meet you, Foggy."

"Same," Foggy agreed.

"Alexis," Matt asked as he stood up, "can I just ask you one last thing?"

Alexis shrugged her agreement. "Sure."

"Who's your boyfriend?"

Alexis broke into a radiant smile. "His name's Steve Rogers," she declared before leaving, "but you would know him better as Captain America."

Foggy stared after Alexis, his mouth shamelessly hanging open in an expression of surprise at her last comment. " _She's_ dating Captain America?!" he exclaimed.

"Apparently," Matt replied. "Kinda makes sense, actually."

It was then that Foggy realized he was probably out of the loop on part of Matt's earlier conversation. "Why would that make sense?"

Matt patted the big bag hanging next to him. "Who else would need a magically reinforced punching bag?"

Foggy chuckled at that. "Who, indeed..."

"How are _you_ doing?" Matt asked, getting down to business. "What did the Guardians say?"

Foggy waved his hand, causing the punching bag to wave back and forth without ever touching it. "Lanie's official diagnosis is non-Guardian psychokinesis, although I seriously doubt it's a diagnosis I could ever take to your average hospital..."

"What does that mean?" asked Matt, fairly sure that he already knew the answer.

"It means," Foggy explained, "that when that...thing almost killed me, it flipped a genetic switch and now i can move things just. by. thinking about it."

Matt watched his friend watch the bag sway in the nonexistent breeze. It was clear even to Matt that his Guide's expression was something akin to melancholy. "Wanna talk about it?" asked Matt.

Foggy spent a little more time watching the bag before he spoke. "I'm starting to think I owe you an apology," Foggy admitted.

"You don't..." Matt countered.

"No, I do," Foggy insisted. "I _really_ do. When I first learned about you being the man in the mask, I...I was really hard on you. At the time, I thought that there was no possible motive that justified you doing what you do as Daredevil. Now I know better."

It broke Matt's heart to hear the frustration in his Guide's voice. "Foggy..."

"I've seen some amazing things over the past two days," Foggy declared. "What you...I...what we're capable of...it's not something most people would understand. Hell, I barely understand it myself most of the time," he admitted with a chuckle.

"We..."

"Teach me to fight," begged Foggy, his voice on the verge of tears. "I know that's going to take some time, and I've got to get in shape before I'm going to be a damn bit of good out there..."

Matt cut his friend off before his argument had a chance to pick up steam. "You don't have to do this, Foggy."

"Yes," he argued pleadingly, "Matt, yes I do! Don't you get it?! I can't just go back to being a lawyer. Not after this. I want to be able to help you. I _need_ to be able to help you out there..."

"Okay."

Foggy had to force himself to stop talking when he heard his Sentinel acquiesce. "You will?" he asked, his voice starting to show the slightest tinge of hope for the first time in the conversation.

"If it's that important to you," said Matt, "then I won't promise anything _yet..."_

 _"_ I'm not asking you to," Foggy agreed eagerly.

" _But,_ I'll teach you everything I can and we'll see how it goes."

Foggy enveloped his Sentinel in a bear hug, his heart soaring. "Thank you!" he exclaimed. He grabbed the swinging bag, bringing it to a stop with a thought. It was then that Foggy realized what he had in front of him...and the opportunity it represented. "Can we start now?"

Matt's eyes widened. "Now? Right now?" Foggy nodded eagerly, so Matt scrambled to come up with a plan to please his energized friend. "Okay," he declared. "First rule: fighting is a last resort. Like you said, you have a hugely powerful ability, so if you're ever in danger, go to _that_ first. It's hell of a lot easier get out of a fight by dropping something big and heavy on someone's head than it is to throw a knockout punch."

Foggy nodded, appreciating the logic of Matt's 'first rule'. "Powers first. Got it."

"Good," said Matt, sensing that his Guide was drinking in every word. "Now, if you're ever in a situation where you _have_ to fight, let me show you how to throw a punch so you won't break your hand in the process..."


	14. Chapter 14

_It's a beautiful night,_ Karen thought with a sigh. She wished she could enjoy it. She wished she could enjoy...anything, really. Karen had hoped, against all hope, that she could get a new start in New York City. New job, new place, new life in a new city that was so big, so wonderfully packed to the gills that there was no way anyone would know who she was. Would _care_ who she was. It was a chance to start over. A chance to be happy.

 _Was_ being the operative word.

When had her life spiraled so far out of control? From the minute she got to New York, she had made one wrong choice after another. One bad decision after another. Decisions that had nearly destroyed her life...

Decisions that had gotten people killed.

She was cursed, she had to be. No matter what she did, no matter where she went, Karen Page was destined to suffer. She looked around her tiny, sparsely furnished office. The only sanctuary she had known since she came to New York. Run by two men...the only two men in New York who had truly cared for her. That were still alive, at any rate. _I can't stay here,_ she realized, her heart racing a mile a minute. _If I stay, something's going to happen. Something's going to happen to Matt and Foggy, just like it happened to Ben..._

Karen stood up, wiped away her tears, and took two steps toward the door when a voice called out to her from the darkness. "Karen," it said. No more, no less. He just called her name.

She thought, at first, that it was him. _Daredevil._ The mysterious man in the mask who had saved her life. More than once. So Karen was thoroughly surprised when she turned around and discovered that the voice belonged to Foggy, dressed all in black and annoyingly hard to make out in the dim, moonlit office. "Jesus, you scared me," she exclaimed. "Are you okay? Matt said you might be taking a couple of days off..."

"We need to talk, Karen," Foggy declared, his voice heavy with the weight of the conversation to come.

Karen tried to use the desk to steady herself as her nerves started to get the better of her. "What...what's going on, Foggy?" she stammered out. "You're scaring me a little..."

"There are things you need to know, Karen," Foggy replied. "Things _we_ need you to know."

Karen felt herself start to shake as her heart raced, not knowing we to make of what was happening. "We?" she gasped.

"Karen."

 _That_ voice was unmistakeable. Karen wheeled around to see Daredevil standing in the doorway to Matt's office. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"We need a safe place," Foggy declared. "Someplace where we can be ourselves. We want it to be this place. But in order for that to work, we need to be able to trust you."

Karen frowned, confused by the way Foggy was the one being cryptic. "We?"

Daredevil crossed his half of the space, stopping when he was directly in front of Karen. "I don't want there to be secrets between us, Karen," Daredevil declared. "Not anymore."

Karen gasped when gloved hands wrapped around hers. The height, the build, the scruff of his face, the strength of his hands... _Oh God,_ she thought. _I was right. It's him..._ she thought as she let Daredevil guide her hands to help him take off his mask. _It really is him..._

"Matt?"

#

Karen took deep breaths, fighting to get her heart rate back to normal. "Let me get this straight," she said, turning to Matt as buttoned up the cufflinks on his spare 'clean' shirt. "You're a...Sentinel?" Matt nodded. "Which means that your senses are so off the charts that do things like hear things a mile away and feel the differences between grains of sand..."

"More or less, yeah," Matt agreed.

"Can you - can you _see?_ " asked Karen. "Are you just...faking the whole 'blind' thing?"

Matt shrugged. "Yes and no," he told her. "I combine all of my senses to be completely aware of everything around me. It's kind of like seeing..."

"But you can't like, read a newspaper or stuff like that?" Matt nodded.

Her curiosity about Matt temporarily satisfied, Karen turned to Foggy. "And what about you? I know about him, but what's your part to play in all this?"

Foggy waved his hand...and all of the blinds in the room snapped shut at the same time, causing Karen to jump as her nerves shot off the charts once again. "That...that's a n-n-n-n-neat trick..." The cup of tea on Karen's desk slid over to Karen of its own 'free will' and Karen jumped back, not sure if she wanted to touch the cup. Curiosity winning out over fear, she picked up the cup. It felt...normal. The same as it always felt. "How...how...how did you do that?" she asked.

"It's a gift," Foggy replied, his voice showing just a tiny hint of its normal good humor. "One of many I just discovered I have."

"Foggy's my Guide," Matt explained. "When we work together..."

"We're unstoppable," Foggy declared with a smile.

As Matt and Foggy started to tell Karen the amazing tale of their recent adventures, a Bible verse ran through her mind. If you asked her where it was from...well, there was no way she could tell you, but all Karen could think was, _I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses..._ Up until that night, she had been so very certain that all of her life was curses. But if these two men...these two _extraordinary_ men...were willing to entrust her with such amazing secrets...

Maybe she had some blessings in her life after all.

 _#_

Morning came far too early for everyone at Nelson and Murdock. Matt poured Karen a cup of tea and brought it to her desk. "'Morning, Karen."

Karen looked at the cup, then up at her boss, who was sitting on the corner of her desk. "Isn't that supposed to be my job?" she teased.

Matt smiled, glad to hear the lightness in Karen's voice after the heavy conversation of the previous evening. "I am perfectly capable of pouring someone a cup of tea, Karen," he teased back.

"Oh, I am well aware of that," Karen agreed, taking a sip of the tea. "Especially after last night."

Matt caught the hitch in Karen's voice. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked. "Foggy wanted to tell you a while ago,.."

Karen got up from her desk, trying to keep the conversation light and dodge the issue by bringing a file to Foggy's office. "Matt, it's good. _We're_ good. Now you two talk, or think, or whatever it is that you do now. I gotta finish filing the last of the paperwork on the Wong dismissal."

Matt watched Karen return to the reception room with a heavy heart. _Karen's keeping something from us,_ Matt thought. _I don't know what, but everytime I talk about not keeping secrets her heart rate goes through the roof..._

 _I hear it, too,_ Foggy admitted.

Matt found himself surprised by that. _You do?_

Foggy nodded. _It's like I have a back door key to your head; sometimes the hinges are a little looser than others. I see things, hear things, smell things...how *do* you stand her coffee, by the way? It sucked before I had flashes of hypersenses, but now..._

Matt's mind-voice chuckled. _Blair and I can teach you to control it, Foggy. Just like I did. Including turning a sense completely *off* if you need to._

 _Like turning taste off when you need to drink Karen's coffee,_ Foggy thought, catching on to what his Sentinel was trying to tell him.

 _Sometimes you just need the caffeine,_ thought Matt. His eyes wandered over to where Karen was answering the door. _I wish I knew what she was keeping from us..._

 _Secrets *suck*, my friend,_

Foggy declared.

 _I don't ever want to have to keep them. Especially from you._

Matt found he couldn't help the smile that spread across his face. _Hear, hear,_ he agreed.

"Uh...guys?"

Matt and Foggy looked up and over toward the doorway to their main reception area. "Yes?"

"There's a woman waiting to see you," Karen replied. "She's...she says she's looking for legal representation."

"Did she give a name?" asked Matt.

Karen hesistated. "That's just it, the name she gave. She called herself Jessica Rabbit."

Foggy and Matt both chuckled. "We'll be right there," Matt declared. As Karen turned to take care of their visitor, Matt's thoughts turned to his Guide. _May I?_ he asked.

The two men shared Foggy's eyes in order to size up their new potential client. _Well, at least she's got a hot body..._ thought Foggy.

 _You think any woman who's not five hundred pounds has a 'hot body',_ Matt teased.

 _That is not true!_ Foggy argued. _I draw the line at four hundred pounds._

Matt allowed himself a mental chuckle. _Her head is pretty heavily disguised, though. And she's wearing a wig._

 _Do you think she's bad?_ asked Foggy, his mental voice adopting the cartoon's character's gravely falsetto. _Or is she just drawn that way?_

Matt chuckled again. _Why don't we go meet her and find out?_

The two men severed their connection, and Matt grabbed his cane, the anchor that reminded him to adopt the behaviors of his blind 'civilian personna'. He then followed his partner into the reception area and offered his hand. "Miss...Rabbit? I'm Matt Murdock," he introduced himself. "This is my partner, Foggy Nelson. How may we help you today?"

The woman blushed and chuckled at the greeting before shaking Matt and Foggy's hands. "Forgive me," she apologized. "My boyfriend is much better at stuff like this than I am. May I?"

Matt and Foggy both nodded their permission, even though they didn't know what they were nodding permission for. Once the woman removed her hat, scarf and wig, though...it was Karen who first noticed the resemblance. "Ms. Rabbit, has anyone ever told you that you look an awful lot like Pepper Potts?"

The woman smiled. "Well, I'm glad I look like myself, then."

Karen and Foggy both gasped at the same time...while Matt tried not to look as confused as he felt. "Pardon me...Miss Potts?"

The other two members of the 'Nelson and Murdock' team stared at Matt in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?!" Karen exclaimed. "You have no idea who this is?! Pepper Potts? Tony Stark's girlfriend?"

When the additions to Pepper's name didn't register on Matt's face, Foggy picked up the description. "Seriously?! Pepper Potts? Stark Industries CEO and boyfriend to a _billionaire_ Pepper Potts?! That name doesn't register with you at all?!"

Matt blushed, embarrassed on his friends' behalf. "Please forgive my friends, Miss Potts," he apologized calmly. "It appears they are both a bit...star-struck."

Pepper chuckled while Foggy nervously fidgeted and Karen didn't seem to know whether to bow, curtsy, or grab her cell phone. "It's quite all right, Mister Murdock," Pepper replied. "I've gotten used to it."

"May we offer you a bottle of water, Miss Potts?" asked Matt, taking over for his still-dumbstruck secretary. "I would offer you some coffee, but it's a hot day and to be honest, the coffee is not very good..."

Pepper waved off the offer. "Thanks, but no. I can't stay very long. I mostly came to drop this off."

Matt took the envelope without opening it. "Forgive me, but it's not like I can exactly look..."

"Of course," Pepper agreed, noting the details that surrounded the person with whom she was speaking. "Your reputation precedes you, Mister Murdock. In fact, it's why I'm here."

Foggy came to his senses and tore open the top of the envelope. His face paled when he read the heading of the first page. "Th-th-th-this...this...this is a standing retainer agreement," he finally stammered out. "With Stark freakin' Industries!"

"Like I said," Pepper continued, "as Mr. Stark and I looked into your little firm, I've become very impressed by what you're trying to do here. I'd like to help."

Matt opened his mouth to respond...but was stopped when Foggy read further down the page. "You're offering us a half a million dollars a year?! In PERPETUITY?!"

"Is that enough?" Pepper asked. "I was sure it was, but Tony was fully prepared to offer you a million if you needed it..."

"It's unbelieveably generous, Miss Potts." Matt replied, his memory recalling the last time his firm had been offered a retainer...and growing increasingly suspicious of the offer that he couldn't (and Foggy wouldn't, if his racing heart was any indication) refuse. "Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I'm sure you already have an army of lawyers at your disposal. Why are you _here_?"

Pepper's eyes darted between Matt, Karen and Foggy, and she seemed immediately unsure of how to word her next statement. "Forgive me, but I probably should have been more specific earlier, Mister Murdock. You were recommended to me by a mutual friend. Richard Castle."

Matt and Foggy's defenses instanly went up. "How do you know Mister Castle?" Matt asked, not wanting to divulge any more than he had to.

Pepper was starting to dread having to encode everything she was trying to say. "May I speak to you and Mister Nelson in private, Mister Murdock?"

Matt was starting to pick up on Pepper's discomfort...and he smiled when he suspected the reason for it. He set the cane aside and removed his glasses. "Anything you need to say to me and Foggy you can say in front of Karen, Miss Potts."

Foggy's eyes widened as he watched his Sentinel remove his 'Clark Kent getup'. "Matt..." he warned.

"She knows, Foggy," Matt simply stated, cutting off his Guide. "There's only one way a genius billionaire superhero engineer could possibly have anything in common with a crime novelist. He's worked with the Guardians."

"He's right," Pepper agreed, ending all argument. "Tony and I are well aware of all the good that the Guardians do for this city. We are a part of an organization that allows them to continue those good works by making sure that we take care of the Guardians. And, in turn, each other." Pepper pointed to the retainer agreement as she continued, "there are three reasons for that retainer: One: it's no secret the type of clientele that most defense attorneys have to work with just to keep the lights on. This agreement frees you up to take only the clients you _need_ to take. The innocent ones that you set up shop here to protect. Two: we value what you do for this community. _Everything_ you do for this community. We want to make sure that you're able to keep doing it. And that's a lot harder to do if you're worried about putting food on the table."

Matt finally smiled as Alexis' words of encouragement echoed in his mind...until he realized that Pepper hadn't finished. "What's the third thing?"

"My boyfriend has a rather...dubious reputation in some circles," Pepper replied. "He has needed a lawyer far too often for my liking. Having a little 'super-powered' representaiton on hand, I suspect, would be quite helpful." She then leaned in and shared with Matt in a conspiratorial whisper, "and I might just want to call you for the occasional 'human polygraph' session with Tony, if you wouldn't mind..."

Matt chuckled at the request. "I believe we have a deal, Miss Potts," he announced.

"Excellent!" Pepper exclaimed. She turned to Foggy. "Can I trust you'll look everything over and have the signed documents back to me in the morning?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Foggy agreed eagerly.

"Then I'll be in touch," Pepper declared, effectlvely ending the conversation. "Your first check is in the envelope, gentlemen. Don't spend it all in one place."

It took every ounce of self-control that Foggy had to try to remain calm and business-like as Pepper Potts left the office...but once the door was closed behind Pepper, the celebration began in earnest. "Oh my GOD!" Foggy exclaimed, unable to believe their good fortune. "Can you...I mean...we just..."

Karen was practically glowing as she looked at the men who were her best friends...her family...her heroes. "It's the golden rule," she told them. "Do unto others...and God will make sure that it is done unto you." She pulled the two men into a group hug, finally letting the tears of joy flow unrestrained. "I love you guys, you know? I love you guys so much..."

"We love you, too," said Matt.

Karen broke the embrace, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Does that mean we can get decent wi-fi now?"

Matt chuckled. "Sure."

Foggy pulled the check out of the envelope, gazing lovingly at the numbers dancing in front of his eyes. "I _really_ need to order Bess some Cubans for this. Good, _good_ Cubans..."

"You need to stop buying that woman cigars, Frankie," Matt teased, knowing his Guide was not about to give up that particular practice.

Foggy's eyes went wide. "After everything that's happened in the past two days?! After _this?!_ I feel like I owe that woman a cigar factory..."

#

 **A/N:** Hope you guys all enjoyed this one! Of course, since I didn't post this one in installments, that means all of you have gotten this far *need* to post comments now so I know you liked it. ;-)

And if you want a sequel to this one, I'm gonna make you work for it...a little. If the Daredevil boys are gonna get their own offshoot of this universe then Foggy needs a superhero persona: name, costume, everything. And it's gotta work for him as Daredevil's sidekick. So all you creative types, have at it. :-D Whoever comes up with the best one will get the next story dedicated to them. Good luck!


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